


Keeping Lost Spies

by dragonwriter88



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Dimensions, Clint Barton Needs a Hug, Crossover, Cute Kids, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Humor, This is My Family Fic, Travel between Dimensions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-11-13 22:25:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11194701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonwriter88/pseuds/dragonwriter88
Summary: It hasn't been long since Bruce Banner and his friends, the Coulson twins, were abducted the first time. Then it happens again. While Phil Coulson and his family race to rescue them, another shadowy figure shows up. However this unexpected hero has his own secrets that will change the way the whole family will see the world forever.





	1. Chapter 1- Finding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anarchycox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anarchycox/gifts).
  * Inspired by [If You're Happy and You Know It](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8456377) by [anarchycox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anarchycox/pseuds/anarchycox). 



> This story is dedicated to anarchycox. It is her world this is set in. After reading her amazing stories, this plot bunny ambushed me and wouldn't leave until I wrote it. When I asked, anarchyox encouraged me so I'm finally posting it. Please read her series "This is my Family" both because it is amazing but also because my story will make a lot more sense with background.  
> Please enjoy.

Chapter 1-Finding

“Angle your mirror another 30 degrees,” Eleven year old Bruce Banner shouted to Natasha Coulson. She was pretty far away and he wanted to be sure she heard him.  
“Huh?” the eight year old redhead shouted back.  
Bruce sighed. “Thirty degrees, about this much,” he called, holding his hands at the required angle, and watched his friend tilt the mirror accordingly. “Perfect, stop there.”  
“What about mine?” Tashi’s twin brother, Clint, yelled from the top of the jungle gym.  
“Perfect!” Bruce praised and smiled as Clint preened for a second before anchoring the mirror and jumping down. They were playing with sight-lines in the park, a pretty cool combination of physics (science for Bruce) and spy craft (for Tashi). Clint was surprisingly good at the geometry of it and had provided the “target” they were using. A beat-up stuffed bunny was hidden under a bush across the park from Bruce but using the mirrors, he could see it perfectly. Bruce knelt to write his findings in his notebook. Tonight he’s put them in proper format so he could show Tony tomorrow before their lab time.  
Clint and Tashi joined him and high-fived when they could see “Mr. Fuzz-Butt”.  
Skye looked up from her phone and smiled at her charges. It made her warm and fuzzy that they were so happy, considering what they went through not so long ago. “Time for clean-up, guys!” she called to them. “If you’re quick we’ll have time for ice-cream on the way home.”  
“Ice-cream!” Clint shouted and took off for the closest mirror. Tashi smiled indulgently as she walked to her mirrors. Bruce finished his diagram and went to get the mirror Clint had forgotten in his rush. In only a few minutes they had a pile of mirrors next to Skye on the bench. They beamed expectantly at her.  
“Are you forgetting someone?” Skye asked with a grin.  
Clint smacked his head. “Aw, Mr. Fuzz-butt, no.” They all took off running to collect the bunny while Skye laughed and pulled out her phone to give the adults and Tony an update. Maybe they could all meet for that ice cream.

Behind the bushes that lined the park, separating it from the street, the kids were hidden from Skye but they didn’t think anything of it. They were well within shouting distance and they had their panic buttons, just like Phil taught them. Their self-defense lessons were also coming along great, thanks to the extra incentive they had from the kidnapping. None of this was any help when six men appeared out of nowhere to grab them. Unlike last time, these men were professionals. The kids had no time to fight back before they were over powered and pulled into a SUV that pulled up. Tashi had just enough time to push her panic button. The last man grabbed the bunny that he saw on the ground in an attempt to leave no evidence. Then they were gone.  
Across the park, Skye was getting worried when the kids were out of her sight. She hurried to where she knew they left the stuffed bunny, figuring they had gotten distracted but by the time she reached the spot, all she could see was a dark SUV pulling away at high speed. Despite the spike of panic that made it hard to breathe, she pulled out her phone to call in the cavalry. Those bastards took the wrong kids. 

A few blocks away the SUV stopped and the three kids were roughly pulled out. A big man with blond hair and mean eyes stood over them threateningly.  
“Take off your clothes and put these on,” he ordered. In his hand were white t-shirts and loose drawstring pants, sort of like child sized scrubs.  
“No!” Clint shouted and tried to kick the man holding his arm. He got a clout upside the head for his trouble, making him see stars. Tashi snarled at the man.  
“Now, kids or we tear your clothes off you,” the blond man snarled. He raised his hand like he was going to hit them.  
Bruce started to shake. He was scared and nauseous and trying to be strong for his younger friends but it was too much. He started to pull off his shirt.  
“Good, at least the oldest is smart. All I want is for you to change clothes. You do that and I won’t hurt you. We’re not perverts, brats,” the man said approvingly.  
The twins exchanged a look, but without a better plan they agreed to go along with it for now. They knew their family would find them in no time. Nothing could stop their Dad. They lost a little of that confidence when the men took away their shoes and gave them white flip-flops. They watched as one man grabbed all their stuff and got in the SUV, probably to dispose of it.  
“Wait,” Tashi shouted, letting her eyes tear up artfully. She knew she needed to get these men to pity them so they’d be nicer. “Can we keep the bunny?”  
The men exchanged a look and Mean Eyes nodded. Clint grabbed Mr. Fuzz-butt and held him close. Then the children were herded into a big white minivan. Bruce figured they were trying to be as different from the first vehicle as possible, and he tried not to despair. Once they were in their seats, one of the men put zipties around their wrists and ankles.  
“No funny business and we won’t hurt you,” Mean Eyes repeated. He was driving, leaving the other men to keep the kids under control. They huddled together in the middle row, all three trying to think of some way to get out of this. They couldn’t think of anything. 

>>\--------->  

Phil Coulson and Nick Fury found the abandoned SUV with the kids’ clothes on the other side of town. There was nothing to lead them to the kidnappers. Nick shouted in frustration and shot out the two front tires.  
“Feel better?” Phil said sarcastically. He felt the same way but he’d wait until he had something better than a van to shoot at.  
“No, damn it,” Nick groaned. He though this shit was over once they got Banner in jail. How did someone target the kids without pinging on their radar?  
Melinda and Skye pulled up before Phil could say anything.  
“Did you find Mr. Fuzz-butt?” Skye asked as soon as she figured they didn’t have the kids. It was a dumb question, but she was trying not to cry.  
It took a minute for Phil to follow her train of thought. “Mr. Fuzz-butt? Why would Clint’s bunny be here?” he asked once the name clicked.  
“They were playing with it in the park, the kidnappers took it to,” Skye said, trying not to cry. She felt like if she could find the stupid bunny everything would be okay. It was irrational but it was all she had right now.  
“Yes,” Phil grinned manically. They all looked at him in surprise. “Call Tony, we can still track them.”  
“How?” Melinda asked.  
“Clint was always losing his bunny so I put a tracker in it years ago. If Clint still has it, we can track them.” He pulled out his phone and entered the code. “Yes, it’s still on.”  
“Well, let’s go get our kids back,” Melinda said, leading the way back to the cars. 

 

“Will they find us?” Bruce whispered into the quiet room. He stared at the white ceiling, not sure if he could bear to look at his friends while he still had tears in his eyes.  
“Of course,” Clint said, optimistically, though he was curled around his stuffed bunny like a baby.  
“They’d never rest until they do,” Tashi said. She was focused on finding a way out, though she hadn’t found anything yet. There was a vent that Clint could fit in but since all three of them were handcuffed to their own little cots, they couldn’t get to it. She couldn’t pick the locks either. The men stole her paperclip. Maybe they could pick apart the mattress and get a spring to use, if they had time. Too bad the cots were bolted to the ground, keeping them out of reach of each other.  
“Daddy’s a super-spy and Tony’s a genius,” Clint offered. “It’s only a matter of time.” He still hadn’t looked up.  
They lay there in the silence, not sure what else to do or say. Several minutes passed. Suddenly Tashi sat up.  
“Did you hear that?” she asked the boys. She was staring at the door. The door was thick, but they could hear the muffled thumps that usually meant a fight. A bang signaled an explosion to, but not big enough to feel.  
“Yeah,” Clint answered. “Maybe it’s Daddy and Uncle Nick?”  
“That doesn’t sound like it did last time,” Bruce pointed out. He gulped nervously. “I don’t hear any guns.”  
There was shouting though, and screaming. Someone was giving the kidnappers the run around and not being very nice about it. Just as things started to quiet down, Mean Eyes burst in. He rushed to Bruce and pulled him off the cot, holding the boy in front of him like a shield. Bruce cried out as his wrist was jerked hard against the cuff.  
“Back off!” he shouted at the shadowy figure they could barely make out through the open door. “I’ll hurt the kid!”  
“Now that’s just rude,” the figure said and before they could blink, Mean Eyes fell backwards with an arrow in his eye. Bruce screamed and got as far from the body as he could, which was only the other side of the cot because of the handcuff.  
“Whoa, wait, hey,” the figure said as he stepped in the room. He sounded nervous. “I’m not going to hurt you, please stop crying, I can’t take crying.”  
As he stepped into the light they got their first good look at the man. He was tall and blond, dressed in a purple and black tactical suit, similar to what Phil wore when he was working in the field. The purple theme continued in his sunglasses and bow. Clint gasped, excited despite the danger because the man was wielding a bow and arrows. The man looked around the room, checking for other hostiles before turning back to the three adolescents.  
He touched his ear like he was checking a com device. “Nat, I have three kids here, what the heck would he want with kids?” He looked bewildered. “No, I don’t know whose kids they are. I just found them. Nat? Nat?” He touched his ear again. “Well futz.”  
“Who are you?” Bruce asked after swallowing his fear.  
“Call me Hawkeye.” He started toward Tashi and Clint jerked against his hand cuff, trying to get to his sister.  
“Leave her alone!” he shouted. He threw Mr. Fuzz-butt at the guy because he didn’t have anything else.  
The man caught the bunny and looked at Clint in surprise. “Good aim, kid. I’m not going to hurt you. I need to get you out of here. I just lost contact with my partner and I don’t know if there are other bad guys around.” He held out the stuff animal. “Please let me help you. I’m a good guy.”  
“How do we know you’re a good guy?” Tashi asked suspiciously.  
“’Cause I took down the bad guys?” He shrugged and put his bow on his back. Clint tried not to squeal.  
“How do we know you didn’t take them down just to gain our trust?” she shot back. She moved into a position to protect herself. She couldn’t use her arm, but she could still kick really hard.  
“Um,” Hawkeye seemed lost for words for a second. “I don’t know? How about you trust me for now but if I do something badguy-ish then you can turn on me?”  
Tashi considered this for a minute. “Okay, but if you are a bad guy, Uncle Nick will disappear you.”  
“Deal, now let me get those hand cuffs off.” He pulled an arrow out of his quiver without looking and after fiddling with it, it popped out a small rotating saw which he used to cut the hand cuffs. He was so careful that he never even scratched the kids’ hands. He smiled and made a sound of triumph as the last cuff fell off Bruce’s wrist. “See, good guy,” he grinned. “Now follow directly behind me. I’ll get you out of here and back to your parents. Promise,” he added when they didn’t look convinced.  
“What if someone comes up behind you?” Clint asked.  
To his credit, Hawkeye actually considered the question. After a second, he pulled out three arrows. “These are tazer arrows. Push this button on the side and it will electrify the arrow head. Don’t touch the sharp parts and don’t use them if you don’t have to.” He scrubbed a hand over his head, making his hair stand on end. “They weren’t really made for use against normal humans so you could really hurt someone. But I don’t like leaving you defenseless either, so just, be careful, okay?”  
The three kids shared a look but accepted the arrows carefully. Bruce tried the button and jumped when a bright blue arc of electricity jumped over the metal tip. He quickly let go of the button and the electricity died. Hawkeye nodded in encouragement and led the way out. Clint followed right behind him, his arrow held proudly in both hands and Mr. Fuzz-butt tucked in the back of his pants. He might be a little too old for stuffed animals but there was no way he was leaving the bunny behind. Bruce was in the middle, nervous but determined. Tashi had their backs and kept her thumb over the button on her arrow. She was surprised Hawkeye trusted them enough to give them weapons. They could easily use their arrows on him to get away.  
Hawkeye led them through the hallways, seemingly at random but after peeking into one room that he avoided, Tashi figured out he was avoiding the bodies of the kidnappers. He couldn’t avoid all of them though. At the exit, there were three bodies but two of them were groaning, so the archer hadn’t killed all the hostiles. Somehow, that fact made them all feel better. The kidnappers were mean and ruthless but death was scary.  
Hawkeye stopped in front of the door. He signaled for the kids to be quiet and carefully peeked out. “Coast looks clear, but stay close.” he ordered.  
Clint and Tashi exchanged a look and nodded. Bruce gulped and tried to look brave. Hawkeye looked impressed and gave them a thumbs-up before opening the door enough for them to squeeze out. Outside, it was eerily quiet. Hawkeye had his bow up, an arrow nocked, as he scouted ahead. He touched his ear again, but his com was still jammed. He had just cleared the entrance when several men with guns jumped out.  
“Futz!” Hawkeye swore. He backed up, pushing the kids behind him. “Get back inside while I cover you. GO!”  
“Vibranium!” one of the men shouted.  
“Wait!” Clint said, pulling on Hawkeye’s elbow. “They’re friendlies! They’re friendlies!”  
Hawkeye didn’t lower his bow but he let the string slack a little and stopped trying to force the kids back inside. “You sure, kid?” he asked, eyeing the guns nervously.  
Clint and Tashi nodded excitedly, scanning the men for their dad. Finally, Phil stepped out. “Clint, Tashi!” he called. The twins abandoned their erstwhile protector and sprinted to their dad who hugged them tightly. Bruce stepped forward hesitantly until he saw Tony step out from behind Phil, then he ran into the inventor’s arms with as much enthusiasm as the twins.  
Hawkeye wasn’t left to consider his new solitary stand for long. Nick Fury stepped up and shot the archer with a knock-out bullet as soon as he was sure the kids were out of danger. The stranger collapsed in a heap, luckily without releasing the arrow.  
“Wh…why’d you do that?” Clint murmured into his dad’s shoulder. “He helped us.”  
“If that’s true, I’ll apologize when he wakes up. Right now you are my priority,” Nick said as he knelt before his family. He let his minions secure the archer and any other hostiles in the building. “Are you three okay?”  
Tashi nodded. “Just scared,” she admitted. “We couldn’t fight back, they were too big.”  
“Hawkeye found us though and shot the mean guy in the eye with an arrow,” Clint explained. “He’s pretty cool. Look at these arrows he gave us. He said he wouldn’t leave us defenseless.”  
Phil took the arrows away from his children carefully. Tony could look at them later. Right now he was just thankful his family was safe, and if he had an unknown archer to thank, well he was okay with that.  
“This wasn’t my grandfather, was it?” Bruce said, looking at Tony for confirmation.  
Nick answered. “No, we don’t know who did this yet, but believe me, they will pay.”  
“Hawkeye left some of the kidnappers alive,” Tashi said into her father’s shoulder. “He killed some, but some of them were moving when we were escaping.”  
“Okay, little spider, don’t worry about it anymore. We’ll figure this out. Why don’t Tony and I take you back to the tower and meet up with Mommy, Aunt Pepper and Karen?” He hugged her tighter. “They went to secure the Tower so we have someplace safe to take you.”  
All three kids made approving noises, suddenly exhausted now that they were finally safe.  
\-----------------------------


	2. Chapter 2 –Interrogation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to find out what the heck is going on. Phil Coulson is going to be so overwhelmed.   
> This chapter has the scene that made me want to start writing this story in the first place and it makes me laugh every time I read it. Enjoy!
> 
> Again, major thanks to anarchycox for her amazing world that she's letting me play with.

Chapter 2 –Interrogation

Phil Coulson sat down across from the archer who called himself Hawkeye. He had convinced Nick to let him interview the man because he wanted to thank him for saving the kids. Nick didn’t like it but he gave in because he had the survivors of the massacre to interrogate. Phil almost felt sorry for those poor men: taken out by this mystery man, arrested by SHIELD and now at Nick Fury’s mercy, but remembering how tight his children had hugged him when they escaped banished all the pity he could muster. He turned his mind back to the task at hand; studying the man who had broken into a secure facility took out over a dozen hardened mercenaries and led three children to safety. Hawkeye was a big man, but not huge, though his arms and shoulders were impressive. His eyes were sharp, missing nothing about his surroundings. His blond hair stood up like he ran his fingers through it a lot, with little attempt at actually styling. Judging from his gear, the man had a preference for purple that rivaled Clint’s and his bow and arrows were state of the art and custom made. Phil had asked Tony to look at the wide variety of trick arrows when he had a chance. Phil had a hunch that some of it was modified Starktech. Overall, the man was a puzzle. It was no wonder that Clint, who had a tendency to hero-worship anyway, adored him from first sight.   
“I wanted to thank you for rescuing my children,” Phil said as he sat down.   
Hawkeye raised an eyebrow but didn’t speak.  
“The twins are mine,” Phil continued. “Bruce is still family though, so I’ll thank you for him to.” He leaned forward to get Hawkeye’s attention. “What I want to know is if your objective was to save them or kill the mercenaries. Did you go in knowing there were three kidnapped children inside? Did you know who they were?”  
Hawkeye tilted his head, speculatively, but didn’t answer.   
“Were you working alone? Clint mentioned you were talking into an ear piece?” Hawkeye flinched when Phil mentioned Clint, which was odd. “Did your partner kill the two men outside? They died from knife wounds rather than an arrow to the eye.” Phil watched the man like, well, like a hawk, and he saw the twitch when he mentioned a partner. “So you have a partner. Where are they?”  
Hawkeye shrugged and leaned back in his chair to stare at the ceiling. He seemed pretty in control considering how much trouble he could be in. Phil decided to try a different approach.   
“You could go to jail for murder, you know,” Phil said and Hawkeye just shrugged without looking down. “We cleaned up your mess, but we didn’t have to. Luckily, as far as we can tell all of the men you killed are international criminals. You actually did us a favor. But we can’t figure out who you are, which is unusual for us. Care to enlighten me?”  
Finally Hawkeye looked at Phil, pinning him in place with his eyes. “I can’t tell you. I wish I could but I can’t.”  
“Why?”  
Hawkeye grinned, which made him look like Clint when he had a secret. “Classified,” he laughed, like it was an inside joke.   
“Classified by who?” Phil pressed.   
“That’s classified to.”  
“Tashi, that’s my daughter, said you were talking to someone named Nat. Who is Nat?” Phil continued, tapping his finger on the report. The kids were smart and as expected of his children, they wrote a fairly detailed report. He knew word for word what Hawkeye said to his partner before SHIELD had blocked communications. It was frustrating that they hadn’t been able to trace it though.   
“Classified,” Hawkeye smirked, his eyes sparkling.   
“What can you tell me?”   
“Do you like Captain America?”   
“What?” Phil barked in surprise. “What does that have to do with anything?”  
Hawkeye just stared at him, waiting expectantly.   
“Yes, I love all things Captain America,” Phil admitted, not willing to back down or be ashamed of his hobby. “Why?”  
“Oh,” the archer said with a shrug and the hint of a grin. “Just asking.”  
Phil decided to ignore that. “How did you find those offices? How did you know they were there? Why did you rescue the kids?” he asked, trying to get back on topic.   
Hawkeye quirked an eyebrow again, still grinning at an inside joke. Phil met his eyes and tried to wait him out. He had a sinking suspicion that Hawkeye had as much patience as he did though and more time to waste. Phil stared fiddling with his pen, which caught Hawkeye’s attention. The man watched Phil flip the pen over his fingers with fascination before looking back at Phil’s face.  
“What are their names?” the archer asked, surprising Phil with the change of topic.  
“Why?” Phil shot back cautiously.  
“Just curious,” the blond said, leaning back again. “We didn’t really have a chance to talk earlier.”  
“Clint and Natasha are my children, and Bruce is a family friend,” Phil answered, hoping it would keep the guy talking.   
“Huh, well, that’s unexpected.” He honestly sounded surprised. “Is Bruce’s last name Banner?”  
“If it is?”  
Hawkeye shrugged, avoiding eye contact like he was hiding something. Clint did that sometimes when he knew he was in trouble, so did Tony. “I bet Clint likes purple and archery,” Hawkeye said very softly, like he hadn’t meant to say it out-loud.   
Phil narrowed his eyes threateningly. “How do you know my son?”  
Hawkeye swallowed and held up his hands protectively. “Look, I had no idea those kids were in there. My partner and I are hunting a man and we followed the money.”  
“Who are you hunting?”   
“Classified.”  
Phil was losing his temper. He slammed his hands on the table and stood up to loom over the archer. “You better think of something that isn’t classified to tell me. These men threatened my children and you are wasting my time.”  
“I can’t tell you,” Hawkeye said defensively. “I have my orders!”  
“Who gave you those orders?” Phil shouted.  
“You!” Hawkeye shouted back then his eyes went wide and he slapped his hands over his mouth.  
Phil sat down hard. “What?”  
Hawkeye kept his hands over his mouth and shook his head. He looked like a child caught in a lie.   
“What do you mean I told you not to talk?” Phil said quietly.   
Hawkeye groaned but took his hands off his face. Phil pressed his advantage.  
“Does it have something to do with Bruce’s name and how well you know Clint?”  
Hawkeye nodded. “I don’t suppose you can just take this on faith and let me go?” he asked hopefully.  
“Not a chance,” Phil said smoothly.  
“Nat’s going to kill me,” Hawkeye lamented but finally started talking. “Look, this is going to sound crazy but have you ever heard of the alternative Earth theory?”  
“Sounds like something out of a comic book,” Phil said. He leaned back and crossed his arms.  
Hawkeye snorted. “That’s what I said, but what do I know. Tony explained it to me but best I can tell, my Earth is similar but not exactly like this one. Little things are different, but the broad strokes are the same.”  
“You’re from an alternate Earth?” Phil questioned skeptically.  
“Yes. Red Skull punched a hole through reality into this Earth and Widow and I came through because we weren’t ‘enhanced’ and we had the skills to take care of ourselves. Skull isn’t real creative with his undercover so we found him by looking up his real name. We found he had rented that building and after we scouted it, I moved in.”  
“And you attacked them?” Phil prompted.  
“They attacked first, it was self-defense. Then I found the kids and you know the rest of the story,” Hawkeye said with a shrug.  
“Let me get this straight,” Phil murmured, rubbing his eyes. He felt a headache coming on. “A comic book villain came from another world and hired mercenaries to kidnap my children. You followed said villain and just happened to stumble over the kidnapping. Do you really expect me to believe that? And I still don’t know why he targeted my family.”  
Hawkeye sighed. “I was wondering about that to and I might have an answer.”  
“Out with it,” Phil snapped.   
“It might be my fault,” Hawkeye said, not meeting Phil’s eyes. For a big man he looked a lot like a kicked puppy, which just made Phil feel protective over him.   
“Explain,” he ordered, not letting his emotions into his voice. He was feeling a little compromised because something was making him care about this very dangerous man. He wanted to apologize for upsetting an assassin, he wanted to hug him and tell him it would be okay. Those were not feelings and impulses that he trusted and Phil knew that the next words out of Hawkeye’s mouth were going to change everything.   
“Well,” Hawkeye paused to take a deep breath. He looked up ruefully. “My real name is Clint.”

>>\---------->  
Phil leaned heavily on the hand rail in Tony’s elevator as he waited for the doors to open. He was exhausted, overwhelmed, and halfway convinced he was delusional. That didn’t stop him from standing up and squaring his shoulders before stepping out to greet his family. He had an image to protect and he didn’t want to worry them.   
As he entered the front room, he instinctually assessed the situation, marking everyone’s location. His Melinda was on the couch, reading a book; he recognized it as a novelized version of his Captain America comic books. That was both very hot and very disturbing considering the talk he just had. He swallowed hard as he located Tony and Skye in the corner, buried deep in cyber world on their respective laptops. He could hear Pepper in the kitchen, banging on pans and talking on the phone, probably clearing her and Tony’s schedule for several days. Phil knew that Karen was back at work, insisting that someone keep up the normal routine while they circled the wagons. Phil had agreed with her reasoning, but she was on everyone’s speed-dial, just in case. Fury had also assigned her a security detail, but she didn’t know that. Finally, the kids were playing in a monstrous blanket fort that took over half the room. He could hear Bruce and Tashi ordering Clint around as they continued to build the thing.  
Phil smiled as he strode forward with purpose. He trailed a hand over Melinda’s shoulder but didn’t stop at her questioning look. He went right to the fort and said “Knock knock” gently to get their attention. Tashi poked her head out.   
“Daddy!” she cried and crawled out to hug him.   
Her brother was right behind her and Phil held his children tightly. He heard, rather than saw, Melinda come over and sit beside him. She didn’t try to intrude but when Phil opened his arms a little, she fit right into their little huddle like a missing puzzle piece.   
“What happened?” Melinda whispered as he held his family.  
Phil took a breath, smelling Melinda and Tashi’s shampoo (they shared because Tashi wanted to smell like Mama) and a hint of Clint’s grape sucker. “Skye,” he said when he was centered. “Why don’t you take the kids into the media room? They can pick a movie to watch.”  
Skye looked up from her computer, confused, while Tashi scowled. “Why are you making us leave?” she asked, eyes narrowed dangerously.  
Bruce came out of the fort and stood with his arms crossed. “We need to know what is happening to. We have a stake in this.”  
“What he said,” Clint added.  
Phil sighed and rubbed Clint’s head, making his short blond hair stand on end, like the archer that he left on the lower floor. Okay, stopping that train of thought right now. “Please, just trust me for now,” he said, looking the kids in the eye. He wanted to them to know that he wasn’t just brushing them off, but he couldn’t risk their safety. “I need to talk to the adults now but I promise we will keep you in the loop.”   
Clint and Tashi exchanged a look. Then Clint grabbed Bruce’s hand and Tashi went to grab Skye and they left the room. Pepper, who had come in while Phil was negotiating, took Skye’s seat and nudged Tony to get his attention. Everyone watched Phil expectantly.   
Phil looked around at his friends and family. They were the smartest, most understanding people he knew, but what he was about to tell them would strain even their imagination. He looked up at the ceiling. “JARVIS, encrypt any recording of this room, please.”  
“Of course, Agent Coulson,” JARVIS announced.  
“Why the secrecy, Phil?” Tony asked. “Why’d you send the kids outside?”  
“The archer, Hawkeye, who rescued the kids, told me a very interesting story,” he began. He told them everything. He explained about the alternate Earth, the comic book villain, and finally about the man’s supposed name. It took a while, but no one interrupted, not even Tony.  
When he was finally done, Phil waited for their reaction. As expected Tony was the first to comment.  
“I don’t know if I’m insulted, ecstatic or terrified,” the genius confessed. “That guy claims he’s an alternate version of our Clint?”  
“That is what he said,” Phil answered.  
“Does he have any proof?” Melinda asked.  
“Not exactly,” Phil admitted. “I was hoping that all of you could help prove his story, or disprove it.”  
Tony got up and started pacing. “How can we do that?”  
“Talk to him,” Phil answered quickly. “You can check what science he knows and maybe run some tests, Melinda and I can watch for similarities with our Clint, and Pepper is the best judge of character I know. Between the four of us, we should be able to determine the truth.”  
Melinda studied his face, and then nodded with satisfaction at whatever she saw there. “Bring him up, my Phil. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”  
“Agreed,” Pepper added. “But I will not believe that the archer is anything like our sweet Clint.”  
“Hear, hear!” crowed Tony as Phil got up to retrieve the archer and bring him before this panel. He thought about calling Nick, but the director would probably shoot him again and they didn’t have time for that. 

Hawkeye was lying on the table with his head hanging over the edge when Phil walked in to the little conference room. “Do you believe me yet?” he asked, eye brow quirked, which looked odd upside down.   
“No. Get off of there.” Phil told him coldly. “I want you to try and convince a few other people. I admit that I am not impartial enough to make that call on my own.”  
“Fair enough,” the archer said, rolling off the table in a controlled tumble. “Lead on, boss.”  
Phil glared at him, but led the way to the elevator.   
In the elevator, Hawkeye snickered when Phil talked to JARVIS, but merely shook his head at Phil’s raised eyebrow. The man was nervous, Phil noticed. He was good at hiding it, but Phil was observant and he saw the tight shoulders and the twitching fingers. If he started shifting his weight, he’d look like Clint when he needed to use the bathroom. Phil also couldn’t help but notice the way the archer’s eyes kept flicking to the vents and roof of the elevator. He wasn’t sure what to do with that information, but he didn’t have long to ponder it because the elevator doors opened and Phil led the way to the rest of his family.  
Most of the looks leveled at the archer as he stepped into view were hostile, offended that this man claimed to be one of their own. Melinda in particular could have burned a hole in him with her glare. Hawkeye gulped audibly and when Phil waved him forward, he took a step…and promptly tripped over his own feet. He hung in the air for a split second, his arms flailing before falling flat on his face. Everyone stared in bewilderment as the man sat up and rubbed his nose, which had a rug burn on it.  
“Aww, feet, no,” Hawkeye said mournfully. He groaned as he started to get up, his ears turning red with embarrassment.   
“Yep, okay, I’m sold,” Tony announced loudly. “That man is a grown up Clint.”  
Melinda had a hand over her face to hide a smile. She nodded and looked over at Pepper who wasn’t trying to hide her smirk.  
Phil chuckled and helped Hawkeye back to his feet.   
“So, how can we help?” Tony asked after they were all sitting down.   
Hawkeye, who was still embarrassed about tripping, rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. “Well, we need to catch Red Skull and protect the kids. Then I contact my Tony Stark to bring us back to my world.” He shrugged. “The rest is just details.”  
“SHIELD can help,” Phil said. He was caught off guard when Hawkeye turned and beamed a huge smile at him.   
“That would be great! I’d love to work with you,” the archer said happily.   
“What about your partner?” Melinda spoke up. “Tashi said you had a partner on comms.”  
Hawkeye groaned and smacked his forehead. “I need to call her before she breaks in to rescue me.”  
Tony scoffed. “No one can break in here, I built this place.”  
“Don’t underestimate Widow,” Hawkeye warned. “She has no problem getting into wherever she needs to. There will be less blood shed if you just invite her in.”  
“Blood shed?” Melinda asked, suddenly suspicious.   
Hawkeye sighed and gave Melinda a rueful look. “It’s hard talking to you people. The Melinda May I know is a legend and I’ve known Phil Coulson for almost 10 years. It’s hard keeping you straight in my head.”  
“What about me?” Tony piped up. He was obviously enjoying himself.   
“I haven’t known Stark long,” Hawkeye snorted. “But he’s a teammate.”  
Phil interrupted before Tony could ask any more questions. “Why don’t you call your partner and we’ll bring her in. Then we can combine all of our resources to end this threat in a timely manner.”

Hawkeye convinced them to let him talk to his partner alone so he could convince her to come in. That had made him laugh but no one wanted to ask why. Tony promised them privacy and even agreed to open one of the meeting rooms on the ground floor so they could talk face to face before Hawkeye brought the mysterious Black Widow up to meet them. Phil didn’t like it but he didn’t have much choice. They wanted the archer and his partner’s help.   
The family watched the security footage as a pretty woman with bright red hair crossed the lobby and disappeared into the room with Hawkeye. They never saw her face, because she somehow knew where the cameras were and kept her face averted. 

>>\------------>

In another part of the tower, the kids were having a whispered conference while Skye made popcorn.   
“We need to find out what is going on,” Tashi said decisively.   
Clint bit his lip as he looked at his hands. “Dad said he’d keep us in the loop. Shouldn’t we wait for him?” he asked quietly.  
Bruce sighed. “Grown-ups, even awesome ones like Tony and Phil, always try to protect kids like us. Anything they tell us will be censored. I don’t like not knowing all the variables.”  
“Exactly,” Tashi said. “I trust Dad and Mom to tell us what they think we need to know, but that might not be everything. Don’t you want to know more about Hawkeye?”  
“Well, yeah, but,” Clint mumbled. He leaned against his sister and she patted his head awkwardly. “I’ll admit it, I was scared, really scared. I don’t want that to happen again. I want to protect us.”  
“Knowledge is power,” Bruce said. “The more we know the better we can take care of ourselves.”  
“Fine, what do we do?” Clint said, finally convinced.   
“I’m going to pull a Clint,” Tashi said, making Clint beam. “I’ll disappear into the vents and see what I can find.” She pulled out the mini radios that Tony had just given them. They were going to be for the twins’ birthday, but things change. “I’ll keep in touch with these.”  
“Why you?” Bruce asked. “Clint’s the one usually in the vents.”  
“Because they won’t expect it. They’ll think I just need my ‘quiet time’ and leave me alone, but if Clint disappears, they’ll try and find him,” she explained.   
“Go,” Clint whispered. “Skye’s coming back.”  
Tashi nodded and ducked behind the couch to skirt the wall until she reached a vent. All of Tony’s vents were Clint sized because Tony believed in encouraging “awesome”, so it was easy to slip in. Behind her, she heard Clint and Bruce explaining about Tashi’s quiet time. It was believable enough that Skye let it go and soon they were watching “Brave” which had become Clint’s favorite movie.   
Tashi crawled through the vents, finding the adults quickly enough. They were watching security footage from the front lobby of the tower.  
“I don’t like this,” Pepper was saying.   
Tony squeezed her shoulder. “It’ll be fine. Hawkeye will talk to her and then we can talk to her and we can make a plan of attack. And if she’s hostile, she’ll never make it past the first floor.”  
“He never said her name,” Melinda mused. “I wonder if she is related to anyone here, too.”  
“We’ll just have to wait and ask her,” Phil said. “Look, they’re going into the conference room. Shouldn’t be long now.”  
Tashi had heard enough. Hawkeye and his partner were on the ground level in the conference room. She checked in with the boys. Bruce told her that Clint was keeping Skye busy. She had time to investigate further.  
Tashi continued her crawl to the elevator and dodged JARVIS’s motion sensors as she slid down the shaft to the ground floor. She reentered the vents and searched for Hawkeye. She found him in the third room she checked and he wasn’t alone. A tall pretty woman with bright red hair, just like Tashi’s, was sitting at the table, twirling a scary looking knife.  
“Okay, enough with the silent treatment,” Hawkeye said, throwing his hands in the air. Tashi couldn’t see his face from this angle but he sounded annoyed. “Either gut me and get it over with or forgive me and move on.”  
“What was the one thing I told you not to do?” the woman asked. She had an American accent, but Tashi thought she heard Russian in her cadence.  
“Don’t reveal ourselves to our other selves,” Hawkeye groaned.  
“And what did you do?”   
“Revealed myself to my other self’s father.”  
“I really can’t leave you alone for a minute, can I?” the woman said, putting down the knife sharply. “Fine, the damage is done. What is our next move?”  
“They want to talk to you,” Hawkeye said, suddenly sounding much more chipper. Tashi could see him bouncing on the balls of his feet. She snickered because he looked like her brother when he wanted to show her something. It was funny to see in an adult. “They’re like our people, only not. We can trust them.”  
“We should leave, find Skull on our own,” the woman argued, her eyes sharp and bright.  
“Nat, please?” Hawkeye said. “Just come up and meet them.”  
“Why?”  
Hawkeye sighed and went to sit next to the red head. Tashi could finally see his face and he looked tired and confused, like he couldn’t decide what he was feeling. “You should see them, I mean us. The boy is so sweet and strong. He’s everything I wish I could be. And the girl, she’s perfect; beautiful, smart, strong, and fierce. I just knew she’d taze me with my own arrow if I made a single move against her boys. And they’re happy, so happy. Phil showed me some pictures and they’re amazing. I never remember being that happy at that age. I just think you should see that.”  
Nat considered his words, nodding to herself. Hawkeye seemed content to wait her out. That is, until he looked up and saw Tashi watching him through the vent.  
He chuckled. “Looks like we have a mini spy,” he said out the side of his mouth before addressing Tashi in a gentle tone. “Don’t run, Tashi. Come meet my friend.”   
Tashi considered them for a minute before she pulled out her radio. “Bruce,” she whispered, even knowing the two adults could probably hear her.   
“Here, Tashi,” Bruce answered quickly.   
“I found Hawkeye and his friend. I’m going to talk to them.”  
“Be careful,” Bruce said. “Clint will never forgive me if you’re hurt.”  
“Roger.” Tashi said and muted the radio, but left it transmitting so Bruce could hear her.  
She carefully opened the vent and slowly let herself down, using just her arms like she had been practicing. After she let herself drop the last few feet, she pulled out the Taser she had borrowed from Skye’s purse and held it in front of her.   
“Welcome, little spy,” Nat said carefully, keeping her hands in view and not touching the knife on the table. “How did you find us?”  
“Clint and I know all the vents in Uncle Tony’s tower,” Tashi answered proudly. “Who are you?”  
The woman smiled. “I’m known as the Black Widow,” she said. “What is your name?”  
“Tashi,” Tashi answered. She jerked her chin at Hawkeye. “He knew that.”  
“Yep,” Hawkeye said, grinning ear to ear. “Well, a meeting of the spiders. Wish I had a camera.”  
“Shush,” Widow scolded. “Why did you come find us?”  
“Because we needed to know the truth, not the censored truth that Dad would tell us,” Tashi explained. “So tell me what you want, why are you here?” She crossed her arms and tried to look stern, like Dad when he was telling Uncle Tony off.  
Hawkeye grinned and held a hand out at Tashi and looked at Widow with a smug grin. “See, see? She’s perfect.”  
Widow rolled her eyes and knelt before Tashi. “It’s complicated, little spider. We’re hunting a really evil man who is targeting you and your brother. We want to catch him and take him back with us so he can’t hurt anyone else.”  
“Justice?” Tashi asked, eyeing the woman suspiciously. Though, if she was honest, she was suspicious because she really liked the lady. She was like Mom, only a real spy instead of a scary librarian.   
“As close as we can get,” Hawkeye agreed.   
Tashi looked Black Widow up and down. “Can you kill a man with a paper clip?”  
Hawkeye snorted, covering his mouth with both hands in an attempt to not burst out laughing, but Black Widow looked her squarely in the eye and answered her honestly. “Yes, but usually I don’t need one.”

>>\----------->

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -“Aww, feet, no,” Hawkeye said mournfully. He groaned as he started to get up, his ears turning red with embarrassment.   
> “Yep, okay, I’m sold,” Tony announced loudly. “That man is a grown up Clint.”-  
> *Snicker* Makes me laugh every time. Hopefully the next chapter will be up tomorrow, but you know know it goes. Life is complicated.


	3. Chapter 3- Keeping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is short, but it's worth it. 
> 
> Just as a side not, Hawkeye and Widow are from a mix of Marvel Cinematic Universe and the comics. Hawkeye is not deaf (even though Deaf Clint is awesome) but he also doesn't have a wife and kids. So this is kinda an AU connecting to an AU creating an AU. I feel like Deadpool breaking 16 walls.   
> Anyway, enjoy.

Chapter 3- Keeping

Phil about blew a cork when he saw Hawkeye come out of the conference room with Tashi on his shoulders. He whirled on Tony, who was the closest scrape-goat.   
“What is my daughter doing with them?” he shouted.   
“Um,” Tony mumbled, stuck temporarily dumb. “Hey, they’re your kids. Honestly, nothing they do surprises me anymore.”  
Phil was about to strangle Tony when Melinda stepped up and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Jarvis, why don’t you have Skye bring the other two in here. I think we’re past the point of secrets.”  
“They are on their way, Mrs. Coulson-May,” JARVIS announced.   
“Thanks, J,” Tony said. “Bring our guests up to, and keep an eye on Tashi.”  
“Yes, sir,” JARVIS answered dryly. “I will do my utmost within the parameters of my programing.”   
“My computer is sassing me again,” Tony complained to Pepper. She kissed him on the cheek and ignored him.   
Skye and the boys came in first. Bruce looked embarrassed when Phil glared at him, but Melinda got Phil to calm down, a little, by squeezing his shoulder. Clint was bouncing excitedly and not even his dad could get him to settle down. When the elevator opened, he raced over to lead Hawkeye, still carrying Tashi (who looked very smug), and Black Widow over to the rest of his family. He even took Widow’s hand to pull her when she wasn’t moving fast enough.   
Hawkeye watched him with a gleeful grin that just got bigger the more he watched the interaction between Widow and the mini-him. “Is he always this energetic?” he asked Tashi quietly.   
“Usually,” Tashi said while she played with his sunglasses. She just knew Clint would want a pair just like these because they were purple. She wanted red ones, even if Uncle Tony would tease her about “rose-colored glasses”.  
“Come on,” Clint urged, pulling on Widow’s hand. She had actually slowed down when he grabbed her hand, but not even Phil thought his son was in danger from her. Her face showed complete bewilderment and a smile was playing on the edges of her mouth. She was completely defenseless against Clint’s friendliness.  
“Clint, Tashi, come over here,” Melinda said softly, but her tone brooked no argument. Tashi vaulted over Hawkeye’s head and ran to her mom. It was a remarkable feat of agility that had Hawkeye whistling in amazement. Clint was more reluctant to let go of his new (possible) friend, but he came to.   
“Sorry, Mama,” Clint said softly, looking at his shoes. “They’re just so cool.”  
“They are, Clint,” Phil agreed, corralling his twins so he could look at all three children at once. “And we’re going to help them find the men who took you, but you can’t run off again. I was really worried.”  
Tashi held up her radio. “I was in contact with Bruce the whole time, and I could have called out for JARVIS at any time,” she defended. “It was just reconnaissance.”  
“She threatened us with a Tazer,” Hawkeye pointed out, helpfully. “And told her friend before she came into the room.”  
“I’ll deal with you in a minute,” Phil shot over his shoulder. He was surprised when Black Widow snorted into her hand and smacked Hawkeye on the shoulder, but neither one said anything.  
“It’s true,” Bruce said. “We took precautions.”  
“Bruce,” Tony started but Phil held up a hand.  
“I know you wanted to know what was going on, but I’m hurt that you didn’t trust us,” Phil said, making all three kids wilt in guilt. “We were going to tell you everything, after we made sure it was safe. We weren’t going to lie to you, we weren’t going to mislead you. We just wanted to protect you.”  
“Sorry,” Bruce mumbled into his chest. “It’s just that adults usually don’t tell kids everything. We wanted the whole truth. We had to know all the variables.”  
Before Phil could reassure them, tell them that he had every intention to tell them the whole truth, Black Widow stepped forward. She didn’t touch him, or bend down to the kid’s level, but the weight of her regard was a physical pressure over his shoulder. “In an unknown situation, you have to trust your handler utterly,” she said carefully, a definite Russian accent showing through. “He knows more than you do because he can see more than you can. He knows if it’s safe to move or stay put. He knows what the rest of your team is doing. I admire your initiative and I would have done the same, but I haven’t always had a team or a family I could trust.” She looked over at Hawkeye, seemingly unsure where she was going with this.  
He smoothly picked it up, but not moving closer. “Trust your team,” he said simply. “A solid team, like your family, is the single greatest asset a spy or a hero could ever have. You trust your dad right?”  
Clint and Tashi nodded.   
“Then let him make that call. He, and the rest of your family, are your support system. Let them do their jobs so you can do your job.”  
“We’re kids,” Bruce said, crossing his arms. He wasn’t as sold on the strange man as the twins were. “What is our job?”  
“To be children,” Black Widow said. “Let them protect you so you can grow as strong as you can.”  
The kids stared at the two strangers with shrewd eyes before sharing looks that could have had a book’s worth of unspoken thoughts in them. The silence was weighing heavy as everyone processed what was said. Finally, Tony couldn’t take it anymore.  
“Wow,” he said explosively. “That was deep, like Grand Canyon deep. Where did you learn that? Does spy school have a philosophy class?”  
Hawkeye chuckled while Widow rolled her eyes. “No,” the archer admitted. He looked at Phil with an indecipherable expression. “We were taught that by our handler, the man who made us into a team,” he said solemnly. Then his tone changed back to light and joking. “It wasn’t easy, I promise you. I was a circus reject and Nat was a rogue Russian spy. I thought the director’d have a fit the first few times we went out because of the stunts we pulled.”  
“Sounds interesting,” Pepper said smoothly, taking control of the situation before they could be distracted. “I’m sure we would love to hear all about it, but our first priority must be the children’s safety. What can you tell us about their kidnapping?” She looked at Phil and Melinda pointedly, as the other mature adults in the room.   
Melinda nodded. “Yes, as Bruce said, we need all the variables.”  
Hawkeye looked right at Phil with a wide grin. “Debrief, anyone?”  
Widow crossed her arms and gave her partner an unimpressed look. Then she nodded at Phil to take charge.  
“Family meeting,” he said, still watching the strangers suspiciously.   
Everyone took their usual places. Tony’s spot on the table received a raised eyebrow from Widow, but neither new comer moved until everyone else was settled. Then, at Phil’s insistence, they took a cautious seat on the remaining love seat. Widow looked like a queen even as she balanced on the edge of her seat in case she needed to move in a hurry. Hawkeye looked like he expected the couch to cave in on him if he put his full weight on it. He looked like a perched bird, only more awkward. Clint giggled but a look from Phil silenced him.   
They started with sharing what everyone knew to ensure that everyone, even the children were all on the same page. They took turns. Skye told her side of the kidnapping then Phil took over to explain about the search and tracking the stuffed bunny. Then the kids rehashed their part of the events. Phil hated making the kids relive the whole experience again, but Widow didn’t have the details and she asked some very pertinent questions. For example, she wanted to know if any of the men were sympathetic in contrast to the mean man that Hawkeye had killed. The kids didn’t remember anyone, which made her nod and mumble “amateurs”.   
“Why do you say that?” Tony asked curiously.  
“If they were planning to keep the children,” Widow explained without inflection, “they should have had someone start building a relationship. The beginning of an operation like this is the easiest point to start gaining trust.”  
Tony looked sick but nodded and they moved on.   
Hawkeye was next. He sighed and looked at Widow for support. She just gestured for him to continue.  
“I’ve always hated debriefs,” he murmured before settling into his part in all of this. Hawkeye explained how they tracked the money of a “Johann Schmidt” to the mercenaries who rented the office building. Skye happily contributed her search for the rental vehicles the men used and had picked her computer back up to start searching for more “Schmidt shit”. Hawkeye continued with his infiltration of the building and his take down of the mercenaries he found. He glossed over the gruesome details for the kids, but otherwise was very through, explaining his methods and a couple of his back up plans. He expressed his surprise of finding the kids. “I followed the guy who looked like a leader and when he burst into the room where the kids were handcuffed to the bed, I didn’t take any chances.” He shrugged. “I put an arrow in his eye and did what I could to help them. It was a cake-walk until I found them. Then I was responsible for three kids and my com went down.” He shrugged again, his shoulders practically up to his ears. “I hurried to get the kids out safely and ran into SHIELD.”  
“He gave us arrows,” Clint pointed out excitedly.  
“Electrified ones,” Bruce added. “It was surprising that he trusted us with them.”  
Tony was practically bursting to ask about Hawkeye’s tech but Phil made him wait.   
They had saved Black Widow’s point of view for last. “I saw you take Hawkeye in when our coms went dark. I recognized Coulson and SHIELD and decided to hold back. I didn’t want to start a fire fight with my partner down and kids in the middle. In the meantime, I did some research about all of you while I waited to hear from my partner. It was surprisingly easy. Stark, I recommend you improve both yours and SHIELD’s firewalls.” She gave a delicate shrug. “I then decided I wouldn’t move against any of you unless I hadn’t heard from Hawkeye for 24 hours.”  
“Aw, you do care,” Hawkeye teased. She smacked the back of his head which only made him grin. He winked at Clint who had been watching them with wide eyes the whole time. “That’s trust, little man, when a woman trusts you to take care of yourself but still be willing to pull your fat out of the fire.”  
Clint giggled and poked Tashi who rolled her eyes. Phil discretely took Melinda’s hand and squeezed it. He agreed with that entirely.  
Tony sighed and looked over at Pepper, who was checking her phone. Karen was off work in 20 minutes, and Pepper had been keeping in touch. “This is all well and good, but I still don’t understand why this freak is targeting our kids!” the genius exclaimed in frustration. “I know they are the best kids in the world, but I’m biased. What use could a ‘super-villan’ have for our kids?” he asked, using finger quotes.  
Black Widow leaned forward, her face deadly serious. Frankly, she was terrifying and Tony leaned back in alarm. “He wants us,” she said, her voice dark and dangerous. “He thinks that if he takes your kids, he can raise them to be versions of us that he can control.”  
“A Black Widow and Hawkeye that are loyal to Hydra,” the archer said quietly, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “That’s enough to give me nightmares. A tame Hulk would be even worse.”   
“Hulk?” Phil asked.  
“Our version of Bruce Banner was exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, which reacted violently to something in his blood. It created the Hulk, a separate personality created from Banner’s rage. He struggled to contain it for years before coming to an understanding with that side of himself. Now, Hulk is a valued member of our team, one of our power-houses, and Bruce Banner is a personal friend,” Widow explained succinctly. “I don’t have many of those,” she said, looking at the young Bruce before her, her eyes soft.  
“Banner is kind of our in-house doc,” Hawkeye said. “I spend a lot of time with him.”  
“Because you keep leaping off buildings,” Widow chided. Hawkeye just laughed it off.   
Clint held up his hand. Phil smiled and patted his head to invite him to speak. “I’m not as smart as Bruce or Tashi, and really not as smart as Dad and Uncle Tony, but,” he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, an unconscious echo of Hawkeye’s earlier move, “are you saying that you two,” he pointed at the heroes,” are us?” he pointed at his sister and himself.   
“Yes,” Widow said.  
“Oh,” Clint said with a shrug and the hint of a grin. “Just asking.”  
“There are a lot of similarities,” Bruce said thoughtfully, pulling out a notebook to start recording. “Unconscious tics, verbal cues, appearances, but the differences far outweigh those. How do we know the truth?”  
Hawkeye shrugged. “I’m not a scientist. That is Tony and Bruce’s thing. Honestly, I’ve been trying really hard not to think about it.”   
Melinda, who had been quiet up till now, broke in. “You are not related,” she said, not even making it a question. Hawkeye shook his head, blushing a little. “A lot of what makes a person is their experiences. Your lives are very different than ours, which would explain a lot of the discrepancies. Where do the similarities end?”  
“It’s not a matter of where one ends the other begins,” Widow said thoughtfully. “Obviously our Phil is not our father, but he is our handler and friend in SHIELD. He never married Agent May, but he did date a cellist named Audrey. Our Stark was captured and tortured in Afghanistan but he doesn’t have a pacemaker. Instead he built a mini-arc reactor that protects his heart from shrapnel and powers his Ironman suit.” She shrugged elegantly. “It’s more of a mix and match.”  
“Ironman suit?” Tony perked up.  
“No, Tony!” said every person in the room. Except Clint and Hawkeye, they just looked interested. Widow elbowed Hawkeye and glared at him while Tashi poked Clint in the ribs until he giggled.   
“My point is,” Melinda continued, “would Red Skull be able to use our kids like he wants? Not that we would ever allow him the chance, of course, but is he wasting his time?”  
Widow was serious again and answered her with frank honestly. “Yes, he could break these kids and make them the weapons he wants. I’ve seen it done, I’ve done it, and it was done to me. Children are weak and easily influenced, no matter how exceptional they are,” she explained, her voice frigid.  
Phil’s heart clenched at the thought of anyone touching his daughter like that. Black Widow hid it well, but he could see the shadows that haunted her in her eyes and it made him sick. His voice was hard when he spoke, “We can’t let that happen.” Beside him, Melinda nodded as she grasped his hand as tightly as she could.   
Hawkeye clenched his fists until his knuckles popped and he had to take a breath before he could say want he wanted to. “We would rather die than allow Skull to touch one hair on their heads,” he promised. “I will never stand by and watch him do that to any kid but especially not them.” His eyes burned with fury at the man who dared touch them. “I give you my word as an Avenger.”  
Clint, who had been watching them with eyes that never missed a thing, stood up and walked to where Hawkeye was sitting next to Widow. He took both their hands and held them tight. “I believe you,” he whispered. “You are real heroes, and since you’re me, that means I can be a hero to.” He nodded decisively and climbed up to sit between them, still clutching their hands, so now the heroes had their hands crossed over his lap. “I’ve decided,” Clint announced, “we’re keeping them.”  
Tashi cheered and hurried to join her brother, claiming Hawkeye’s hand for herself. Bruce grinned happily and nodded in agreement. Tony fell over laughing while Pepper and Melinda just chuckled and pulled out their phones to take pictures. Skye was quietly recording everything.   
Phil groaned. “Clint,” he said, shaking his head. “What have we told you about keeping people?”  
“I don’t care,” Clint argued. “We kept Skye, we kept Mom, I kept Bruce. Now I’m keeping Hawkeye and Black Widow.”  
“Clint, you can’t just keep people,” Phil reasoned. It was an old argument.   
“Why not?” Black Widow asked, arching a delicate eyebrow. Phil suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. “Hawkeye and I have no family of consequence. I think I’d like being kept.” She smiled sweetly at Tashi who grinned up at her from Hawkeye’s lap. She was remarkably comfortable with the man.  
Phil threw up his arms in defeat. Melinda reached over to hug him, still chuckling. “You knew this was going to happen the second you saw Tashi come out on his shoulders. Don’t fight it,” she said, kissing his cheek. “Save that for the bad guys.”  
Phil nodded regretfully and pulled everyone back to task though sheer force of will. They needed to take care of Red Skull before they could do anything else.


	4. Chapter 4-Meeting the Whole Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Sorry it's been a while, but I've been traveling. Now that I'm back, I have to play catch up with work, but I wanted to post this before I completely lose my mind.   
> Now for the rest of the family. Enjoy.

Chapter 3- Defending

Karen came up soon after the family meeting was done. Bruce quickly got up to give her a quick, awkward hug. Clint and Tashi waved excitedly from their seats between Widow and Hawkeye.  
“Welcome back, Karen,” Pepper said, getting up to greet Bruce’s guardian.   
“Thank you,” Karen said, running her hand through Bruce’s hair.   
“How much has Pepper told you?” Phil asked.   
“Most of it,” Karen admitted. “She sent me a lot of texts and since Mr. Stark was kind enough to send Happy for me…”  
“Better safe than sorry,” the genius pointed out.  
“I had plenty of time to read them,” she finished. She walked over to where Hawkeye and Black Widow were still sitting, pinned by children. “You must be the twin’s doubles, then? Hawkeye and Black Widow?”  
“That’s us,” Hawkeye chirped happily. He started to get up but Tashi grabbed his shirt and pulled him back down. “Um, pleasure to meet you?” he asked Karen as he gave Tashi a questioning look.  
“We’re keeping them,” Clint explained.  
“I think he’d disappear into the vents if I don’t keep him down,” Tashi added. “I don’t think anyone’s kept them in a while.”  
“That’s true,” Widow acknowledged.   
“To which one?” Bruce asked curiously. He stood nearby but didn’t touch anyone.   
“Both,” Widow said with a tiny smirk. She seemed to open up more to the children, allowing several smiles and grins show through for them.  
Hawkeye made a betrayed sound and flopped over so he was laying across both kids and Widow. She smacked his head lightly, then ruffled his hair affectionately.  
Karen laughed. “Well, then, welcome to the family,” she said, holding out a hand for Widow to shake. “Just so you know these guys are crazy.”  
“Not any crazier than out team,” Hawkeye said with a wink. “I think we fit right in.”  
“You’re handling this rather well,” Phil pointed out. “It took me awhile to accept even the idea of another Earth.”  
Karen just shrugged. “I’m not surprised,” she said with a smile as she ruffled Bruce’s hair affectionately. “With this group, I’m more surprised something like this hasn’t happened. We’re you working on proving the alternate Earth theory just a few weeks ago?” she asked Bruce.  
“We couldn’t get any definitive results,” Tony admitted. “I think I have some ideas now, though. I really wish I could talk to my counterpart.”  
Phil shuddered. “No, Tony. Just, no.” He got to his feet. “Now, I think we need to make a run to SHIELD.”  
“Whatever for?” Tony whined. “We have everything we need here.”  
“I need to bring Fury up to speed,” Phil answered. “Kids, you stay here with the women. Tony and I will take Hawkeye and Widow to the director.”  
“No,” Melinda objected. “I’m staying with you. The kids aren’t the only ones who need all the variables.”  
Phil knew better than to argue with his wife and soon their little party was leaving for SHIELD while Pepper and Karen arranged for dinner. Skye was in the process of setting up a dance party with JARVIS’s help. Hawkeye looked disappointed that he couldn’t join them until Tony promised that they would have another that would include everyone.  
“We might even get the pirate to join us,” Tony added thoughtfully, “though we might need to stage an incident to trick him to come in.”  
>>\---------------->  
The director of SHIELD had been interrogating the remaining mercenaries through all the drama at the Tower so Phil needed to update his friend on the latest developments. Nick was going to be livid that he wasn’t involved with the initial introductions and the dangers the kids were exposed to. He was more protective of Phil’s kids than Phil himself was, which was an accomplishment. Though, it was weird that Nick would have a file on the paperboy but trusted Clint and Tashi with jetpacks. Different priorities, Phil thought as he led two alternate dimensional heroes into SHIELD headquarters. Luckily the jet packs had been a one-time thing, at least until the kids were older. Clint said he wanted a rocket-cycle for his 16th, and Phil just knew Nick and Tony were already conspiring to get him one.   
Fury was waiting for them in his office in all his leather coat and eyepatch glory. Phil could see at least two more weapon bulges than usual. Fury was loaded for war. He glared at them as they all filed in, saving the sharpest look for Hawkeye and Black Widow.   
Phil wasn’t sure what he was expecting for this meeting, but honestly, he could not have guessed what happened, ever. Hawkeye was fighting a smile, like he knew the funniest inside joke in the world. His eyes danced with joy as he surveyed the office and the man behind the desk. His partner’s reaction was less jovial. Widow matched the director, look for look. It was quite a standoff actually that probably would have gone on for a while if they hadn’t brought Tony along.  
“Come on,” the inventor exclaimed dramatically. He threw himself into one of Fury’s chairs and draped himself over it like it was comfortable, which Phil knew it was not. Nick bought those exact chairs to keep people from getting comfortable in his office. “I’d say the testosterone was thick in here, but I don’t think it applies in this instance. Stop with the staring contest, Nick. Clint and Tashi already decided to keep them.”  
“What?” Fury exclaimed dangerously, without looking away from Widow. “How do we know we can trust them?”  
Hawkeye couldn’t take it anymore. He broke down laughing until he couldn’t breathe, clutching his stomach and bent over with his mirth. “You,” he gasped, pointing at Fury, “and you,” he wheezed, pointing at Widow. He lost it again and it took several moments before he could get enough breath to continue. “You both are,” he dissolved in laughter again, without finishing his sentence or making any sense. If it didn’t remind Phil so much of his son, he’d fine it annoying.   
“Do you have a problem with me?” Fury challenged but it only set the archer off again, which got Tony to break to. Even Phil cracked a smile and when he looked over at Melinda, she had her phone out.   
“Skye would kill us if we didn’t capture this,” she whispered.  
“Some things never change,” Black Widow said with a straight face.   
“How so?” Fury asked sharply.  
“Glaring contests between Widow and the Director,” Hawkeye gasped, trying to get control of his self. He was purposefully staring at the ceiling to avoid looking at anyone.   
“And Hawkeye making a fool of himself,” Black Widow shot back venomously, but the twinkle in her eyes showed her affection.   
Rather than reply, Hawkeye just saluted her as he tried to get his breathing under control.  
Fury, who was losing his temper turned to Phil, though his glare intensified when he saw Melinda recording them. “Sit rep, Coulson,” he ordered.  
Despite the occasional choked off chuckle from Hawkeye, Phil was able to bring Fury up to speed quickly enough. He even reported things he hadn’t mentioned before like his protective instincts toward the two spies. Fury listened without interruption through the whole thing. The biggest disruption was when Phil explained that it was Hawkeye’s tripping over himself that sold them on his identity.   
Hawkeye groaned while Widow looked gleeful, the most emotion she had shown since they arrived at SHIELD. “You will never live that down,” she told her partner happily.   
“Aw, Nat, no,” Hawkeye pleaded but she just shook her head, still smiling thoughtfully.  
“I take it that such events are common place?” Fury asked archly.   
“He’s the clumsiest person I know,” she explained, her eyes were dancing with delight. “Unless he’s fighting, then I couldn’t hope for a better man to watch my back.”  
“Sounds about right,” Melinda pointed out. “Our Clint is much the same.”  
“Moving on,” Nick ordered. “Continue, Coulson.”  
Laughing only on the inside, Phil continued the debriefing until he had covered everything. Then they all took a moment to consider the situation. Phil took a seat and Melinda sat on the arm of his chair, leaning against him. Hawkeye and Widow took positions in the corners of the room, where they could see everything and cover the door. Phil tried not to notice the stiletto that Widow was toying with.   
“This sounds like a comic book,” Fury complained after a few minutes. He was drumming his fingers on his desk, a sure sign that he was agitated.  
“That’s what I said,” Phil agreed, putting an arm around Melinda to pull her closer.   
Hawkeye smacked a fist in his hand. “Ah ha,” he exclaimed in triumph and pointed at Fury. “You’re Uncle Nick. Tashi said you’d ‘disappear me’ if I was a bad guy!” He looked around expectantly, like a kid looking for a “good job” for answering a question right in class.   
Widow smacked his arm but Fury laughed grimly. “She’s right,” he said, leaning forward menacingly. Hawkeye swallowed nervously, but he was still grinning. “But for now, I’ll let you live.”  
“Thank you, sir,” Hawkeye tried to be serious, relaxing again. “Your generosity is as bountiful as ever.”  
“I like him,” Tony told Phil.   
“Back to the matter at hand,” Fury said sternly, glaring at Tony. “We didn’t get much from the men you left alive at the location. They were all hired muscle who only followed orders. The only one who might have had contact with their employer was dead with an arrow in his eye.”  
Clint crossed his arms over his chest and met Fury’s eyes for the first time. It was much more intense than Fury was expecting. “Just to be clear,” the archer said his tone suddenly stony. “I do not regret killing any of those men, and the one I think you’re referring to deserved worse because he was trying to use Bruce as a human shield.”  
Phil stiffened. “No one mentioned that before.”  
Hawkeye shrugged. “What did it matter? The guy is dead.”  
“Good,” Nick said, meeting Hawkeye’s gaze. “Saves me the trouble. But that means we have more work to do. I want you two to meet with my people and tell them everything you know about this Red Skull down to what damn toothpaste he uses. Coulson, I want you on security for Stark Tower. Beef it up till we know if someone takes a shit within a mile of those kids. Stark, get together with that girl of Coulson’s and go over everything with a fine toothed comb. Use whatever resources you need from SHIELD. I’ll approve it.” He turned to Melinda who met his glare with an unimpressed stare. “Melinda, be the bodyguard for your damn kids already and stop recording me.” The director looked over the assembled people, people he considered family. “Did I stutter, people? Go!”   
“Sir, yes, sir!” Hawkeye snapped to attention and threw a stiff salute. He was grinning like a loon. He turned about face and would have fallen if Black Widow hadn’t caught him. “Aw, Nat,” he whined and she pushed him out the door.   
Fury raised a sardonic eyebrow at the others. Phil shrugged and left with the heroes to show them where to go and get them visitor passes. Melinda and Tony filed after him, Melinda still holding up her phone to record Hawkeye trying to escape Widow’s hold as she berated him for being clumsy.   
When the door closed, Fury sank into his chair with a sigh. “I’m getting too damn old for this,” he lamented to himself. Then he turned on his computer and started working on pulling every favor he had to find the man who threatened his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully Fury wasn't too out of character. He was surprising difficult to write.


	5. Chapter 5- Family time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we're into the fun parts. The next couple chapters are going to be snippets from different points of view. It should be entertaining.

Chapter 4- Family Life

The next few days were a whirlwind of activity. Despite the considerable resources of SHIELD, Red Skull remained at large. In the meantime, the displaced heroes, Hawkeye and Black Widow, stayed in Stark Tower with the family. It was interesting how easily they fit in with everyone, though whether it was their training as spies or their similarities to the twins that allow them to connect was up for debate.

>>>\-------------------->

-Phil 

Phil was up early as usual. He was poring over reports while he nibbled on a poptart and drank his coffee. He was planning to make a real breakfast after everyone woke up, but he needed the sugar rush this morning. Yesterday had been draining.   
He looked up when he heard the elevator open. Hawkeye stumbled, blearly eyed, into the kitchen and made a bee-line for the coffee maker. Phil watched in amusement while the sleepy hero pulled out the pot and took an appreciative sniff of the contents. Then he looked up and opened the cabinet in front of him and made a betrayed sound at the lack of mugs. He looked around for a second before clutching the carafe to himself and retreating to a seat.   
“Hold on,” Phil said when it was apparent the man would rather drink from the pot then keep looking for a proper container. He pulled out a mug from the proper place and put it in front of groggy archer.  
“Thanks,” Hawkeye mumbled and filled the cup. He drained it and refilled it before he surrendered the pot to Phil who decided to start another pot. Half way through the second mug, Hawkeye looked up and blinked at Phil. “Morning,” he said apparently surprised to see him.  
“Morning,” Phil acknowledged, watching the archer in surprise. Had the man not realized he was here? If so, that seemed like a serious liability. “Poptart?” he offered, instead of questioning the spy about his low blood pressure.  
“Nah,” Hawkeye mumbled into his mug. “That’s Thor’s treat.”  
“Thor?” Phil asked.  
“Yeah, he’s from another world called Asgard. He’s a prince there or something. He’s also kind of a god. Anyway, he fell in love with two things on Earth: Jean and poptarts.” Hawkeye shrugged. “Don’t ask me, but I’ve learned the hard way not to steal Thor’s poptarts and now I’m not a fan.”  
Phil nodded thoughtfully as he heard the elevator ding again. This time Black Widow walked in, her red hair damp from a shower. She nodded a greeting to Phil before coming up behind Hawkeye and stealing his mug and draining it.  
Hawkeye gazed forlornly at his empty mug. “Aw, coffee, no,” he whined before looking up at Widow with the biggest saddest eyes Phil had ever seen.   
Widow smiled affectionately at her partner and moved to refill his mug and fill one of her own. “Pancakes,” she said, not addressing anyone in particular.  
“Nat,” Hawkeye whined while Phil just watched, bemused by their interaction.  
Widow poked the archer in the ribs. “Pancakes,” she said again.  
“Fine,” Hawkeye said irritably as he got up. He started laying out ingredients on the counter, mumbling to himself as he searched for different items.   
“Is he always so…,” Phil jerked his head at the archer, “in the morning?”  
Widow laughed quietly into her mug. “Pretty much, though he could be completely alert if the need arose. He’s just not a morning person.” She considered her partner thoughtfully as the man dug into the bottom shelf of the fridge in search of eggs. “And he’s addicted to coffee. He drinks more than Stark. We finally just got him his own maker because he kept stealing the carafe.”  
“I don’t think he even realized I was here,” Phil mused. “Isn’t that dangerous for him?”  
Widow shrugged. “You’re Phil Coulson,” she said like it answered everything.   
“You know I can hear you, right?” Hawkeye grumbled as he started to mix a huge batch of batter.   
Widow just grinned and took a sip of her coffee.   
The elevator dinged again, revealing Melinda and the twins.   
“Pancakes!” Clint cheered as he raced into the kitchen. He pulled a stool and Hawkeye handed him a spoon to help mix while the hero heated up a pan.  
Melinda gave Phil a kiss after he placed a coffee cup in front of her. “It smells delicious,” she said, giving the air an approving sniff.   
“Deadpool original recipe,” Hawkeye said as he poured some batter in. “Or that’s what he says, anyway. You never know with Wade.”  
“You know a Wade to?” Clint asked as he kept stirring with a look of concentration on his face. “My Wade is weird and mostly harmless, well 75% harmless. It used to be 70%.” He looked over at Phil with a big grin and explained, “He’s on new medication that lets him focus better. He hasn’t blown anything up in weeks.”  
“That’s good,” Phil said, distracted by his paperwork. Tashi had pulled up a chair next to him to read over his shoulder.  
“That sounds like Deadpool,” Hawkeye agreed. “The one I know is insane, but if he likes you, he’s pretty nice. And, he might hear voices but the man knows his food. I always listen to him when he recommends a Mexican restaurant or food truck.”  
“Don’t take his advice on truck stops,” Widow added. “He likes the ones where he can pick a fight.”  
Hawkeye ignored her and kept flipping pancakes. “He’s also a master with a frying pan, at least when it comes to making pancakes. He also likes using them like a sword after he saw it some Disney movie. I keep mine locked up now.”  
“You have interesting friends,” Melinda commented. She got up and ruffled Clint’s hair on her way to the fridge. She started pulling out fruits and syrups (because of course, Stark has several flavors of pancake syrup). “I bet they are all big eaters?”  
Hawkeye paused to look at the impressive stack of pancakes he had already made (it filled a huge serving dish) and the large bowl that Clint was still stirring (it was still half full). “I guess I’m used to cooking for the team,” he said sheepishly.  
“It’s okay,” Phil said, surfacing from his paperwork again. “We can always save them for later.”  
“I smell pancakes,” Tony said as he sauntered in with Pepper on his arm. Bruce and Karen were behind them. Bruce still looked tired because he and Tony had been in the lab until late last night.  
“Come and get them while they’re hot!” Hawkeye called. He flipped one over his shoulder and it landed on the plate that Widow had held up.  
“Wooow!” Clint cried. “Do it again!”  
As Phil watched Hawkeye flip pancakes in increasingly complicated ways (the only one that missed the target plate landed on Tony’s head) he felt a welling sense of contentment rise in his chest. These heroes, for as short a time as they had known them, fit in to their family with no rough edges. It was amazing and sweet. He only had to wonder how hard it would be to let them go at the end of the mission.

>>\---------------------->

Melinda-

Melinda May-Coulson was practicing her Tai-Chi in the living room. Phil and Hawkeye were out pursuing a lead and Tony took kids down to the garage to work on one of his cars. He said he needed little hands, but really he just needed them close for a while. This latest kidnapping was hard on all of their nerves, hence the Tai-Chi in the middle of the day.  
Melinda didn’t hear anything, but when she turned, Black Widow was perched on the arm of the couch watching her. Melinda decided to ignore her for now. If the spy wanted to say something she would, and if she was planning on attacking it would have happened already. Without letting her breathing change, Melinda continued her set until she returned to her opening pose and settled back into the world. She stood straight with her hands folded and waited for Widow to make a move.  
It took longer than expected, but finally the red-head broke the silence. “You’re as good as she is.”  
“Who,” Melinda asked. She grabbed the towel she left on the chair and wiped her face, though she wasn’t sweaty.  
“The Melinda I know,” Widow said thoughtfully. She considered Melinda who met her gaze squarely. “She’s an agent, a damn good one. We do Tai Chi together when we happen to run into each other.”  
“I’m a librarian,” Melinda said, refusing to be embarrassed of her chosen profession. “And a mother.”  
“Melinda always wanted kids,” Widow said, lowering her eyes to consider her nails. “The life of a SHIELD agent, though, is…” She trailed off but Melinda could read between the lines. “That’s why Phil never had kids either. But they take care of the baby agents, the newbies with more spirit than sense. Agent May scares them witless but I’ve heard many over the years admit that what she taught them, saved their lives.” Widow shrugged. “Thought you’d like to know,” she said and stood up. “By the way, Agent May scares Hawkeye to, just a little. So if he’s stiff around you, don’t take it personal.”  
“Why would he be frightened of me?”  
“It might be from the time she switched all his coffee to decaf,” Widow said. She ran her fingers though her hair in a thoughtful gesture. “Though it’s probably from the time she got the drop on him and knocked him out.” She laughed at the memory. “He woke up in the cafeteria with a Sharpie goatee and glasses.”  
Melinda surprised herself when she laughed out loud with the dangerous woman. “I’ll have to make sure I keep a marker handy, just in case,” she commented.  
“Do that,” Widow said, turning to leave. “He needs to be kept on his toes.”  
Melinda considered the woman’s back for a moment. Unlike Hawkeye and Clint, who were so alike it was scary, it was hard to see Tashi in the ruthless, almost cold Black Widow. However, Melinda was more observant than most and being a librarian meant she was good at reading between the lines. “Wait,” she called out before Widow could disappear. “I was going to run through another routine, if you’d like to join me.”  
When Widow turned around she had a smile on her face, one that Melinda knew well. It was Tashi’s smile when she got something she had hoped for but not expected, and it made Melinda’s heart melt. Despite her different upbringing and cruel past, this woman was still her daughter from another world. Hawkeye was easy to love, he was a giant puppy, but Widow was harder but the rewards were just as great.  
“I’d like that,” Widow said as she came back to stand next to Melinda. “I’ll follow you.”  
Melinda smiled and began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you enjoy? I hope so. But now I have a problem, I need ideas. So if you have requests or ideas, let me know. Thank you for your continued support.


	6. Chapter 5- Family Life 2 (Sparkly or Glow in the Dark)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ran away from me and I blame anarchycox. Her characters would not sit still and do what I told them. The end result was pretty great though so I'm not complaining. Enjoy!

Clint-

Clint Coulson was bored. It seemed like everyone was busy with each other. Bruce and Uncle Tony were in the lab; Mama and Tashi were in the gym with Black Widow; Daddy was at SHIELD with Uncle Nick. Even Skye was busy. It was boring by himself.  
He started sneaking through the tower, pretending he was a spy like Widow and Hawkeye. He was pretty good at it and when he found Hawkeye by himself in the living room, Clint decided to try to sneak up on him.   
He got about an arm’s length away when Hawkeye spoke up. “I can see you, kiddo,” the spy said. “Next time stay out of my peripherals.” He waved his hands around his head to demonstrate. Clint had been barely within the range the man indicated.  
“Aw, no,” Clint whined. He flopped down on the couch next to Hawkeye and pouted with his arms crossed over his chest.   
“I’m the best, little man,” Hawkeye said, reaching over to ruffle the boy’s hair. “I bet normal people wouldn’t have seen anything.”  
“Normal people are boring,” Clint complained, keeping the whiney quality in his voice.  
Hawkeye laughed. “Sometimes. So why the sneakiness?” He reached out to pause the video he was watching on a laptop that Uncle Tony must have given him.  
“Bored,” Clint sighed, melting into the couch. “Everyone is busy.”  
“That happens,” Hawkeye agreed. He had a kind of half grin as he watched Clint without blinking. When Clint did that, people squirmed.   
“Whatcha doing?”  
“Surveillance video,” the man explained. He turned the video back on and Clint could see the outside of the building where the kidnappers had held them, and where Hawkeye had saved them. Hawkeye tapped the screen. “I’m watching the place where I found you guys to see if I can recognize anyone or see any patterns. I’m working my way backwards, so I’m at about a week before the kidnapping.”  
“Why?” Clint asked, honestly curious. “Can’t JARVIS run facial recognition?”  
“He already did,” Hawkeye agreed, his eyes fixed on the screen. “No red flags except the guys we already know about. I’m hoping to see something else, something JARVIS can’t find because Tony doesn’t know what to look for.”  
“Instinct,” Clint said, nodding wisely. It was nice to have someone answer his questions so easily. Usually only family did that, though he had decided to keep the spies so, maybe they were already family. He grinned at the thought.   
“Exactly,” the archer agreed. “I’ve gotten a few possibles that Coulson said he’d run down for me, but nothing concrete.”  
“Cool, but it still sounds boring.”  
Hawkeye laughed again. “Well, yeah, I guess it is. But I’m a sniper; I’m used to watching for long stretches without moving.”  
Clint made a face and flopped back down. It sounded really, really boring, but hanging out with Hawkeye sounded better than being alone again. “Do you want to do anything?” he asked politely, not wanting to intrude.   
“Sorry, buddy, but I need to finish this,” Hawkeye said regretfully, his face a picture of disappointment. “But we can take our bows out later, ‘kay?”  
Clint hummed excitedly, looking forward to showing off, but still hoping to do something now. He considered the man before him. Hawkeye was drumming his fingers on the table as he watched the screen with laser focus. Maybe there was something they could do without distracting him from his task. Clint tapped his head until an idea fell out. “Can I paint your nails?”  
Hawkeye turned to look at him, obviously surprised. Clint felt a rush of embarrassment. He knew that painting your nails was weird for a boy, but no one in the family cared and he thought… “Nevermind,” he mumbled, pushing himself off the couch. “I’ll find something else to do.”  
Hawkeye paused the video. “Do you have purple?” he asked and when Clint looked up at him, the archer was smiling and honestly looked interested, instead of just humoring Clint.   
Clint relaxed. “Duh! Sparkly, iridescent or glow in the dark?” the boy asked, thinking of what colors he had stashed in the tower.

>>>\-------------->

 

Phil-

Phil walked into the living room in the search for Hawkeye. One of the man’s hunches had paid off and now they had a new money trail to follow. Turns out the mercenaries had their groceries delivered while on the mission and they took turns paying. Tony had laughed for a full ten minutes when Phil had given him the list of credit cards to trace. Honestly, it was an amateur move on their part, but Phil wasn’t going to complain. He wanted to let the archer know what they found and see if he had any other information.   
Phil was surprised to find the archer laid out on his back, knees bent; still watching the lap top balanced on his stomach, while Clint painted the man’s toe nails. He was even more surprised to see Tashi holding the man’s right hand in her lap with a look of intense concentration on her face.   
“What is going on here?” he asked gently, not wanting to startle any of them.  
“Hiya, Phil,” Hawkeye greeted him with a wave of his free hand. “Any luck?”  
“They paid for the groceries with credit cards, so even if their fake, Tony will have a hey-day with them,” Phil answered distractedly. Hawkeye’s fingernails were sparkly purple.   
“I painted his nails,” Clint piped up excitedly. “He wanted sparkly purple and now I’m doing his toes in glow in the dark.” The boy turned his attention back to the hero’s toes.  
Tashi was carefully painting a line on Hawkeye’s index finger and hadn’t acknowledged her father at all. Phil wasn’t going to mention it because she was adorable with her tongue poking out the corner of her mouth as she finished the design she was working on. “I see that,” he told Clint. “Looks like you’ve had fun.”  
“I’m not done yet,” Tashi scolded. She finally looked up. “I need to do his other hand.”  
Hawkeye laughed loudly, which almost made the laptop fall of his stomach. He caught it with his free hand and balanced it against his knees. “Whatever you think is best, Little Spider,” he said fondly.   
Phil was carefully pulling out his phone to take a picture of the three of them when Black Widow glided up behind him. He didn’t notice her until her shadow fell over the phone’s screen. He did not yelp, no one could prove it.   
“What’s this?” she asked softly, surprising the three on the floor.  
Hawkeye jerked in surprise, though he didn’t move his hand or feet. “The kids wanted to paint my nails,” he explained with a lot more nonchalance than he displayed. A deep blush was starting on his cheeks before trailing down his neck and across his ears.  
“I see that,” Widow said, looking down her nose at her partner. She looked around, her face expressionless. Phil was sure she was going to berate him for wasting time or being childish or something and he started to reach over to get her attention, deflect the conflict. Then she surprised him, though really, it shouldn’t have surprised him at all.  
“Do you have a nice red?” the scary assassin asked, looking at Clint. Her expression had morphed to something soft and affectionate.  
Clint beamed at her. “Of course, that’s what Tashi likes. I’ll go get it.” He jumped to his feet and raced out of the room.   
Tashi smiled up at the older woman but didn’t release Hawkeye’s hand. “I can paint a design after the first coat dries, if you want.”  
“Can you do an hourglass?” Widow asked, gliding over to sit beside the younger red-head. She made approving noises at the designs on her partner’s nails. She raised an eyebrow about the toes, though. Hawkeye tried to ignore her by watching his laptop, but his ears turned a brighter red.   
“Of course,” Tashi said, sounding insulted. “That’d be much easier than a bow and arrows.” She tapped Hawkeye’s arm. “I’m done. What do you think?”  
Hawkeye picked up his hand and moved it in front of his face. Phil could see where Tashi had carefully drawn a quiver on the archer’s thumb, then a bow on his pointer finger and little arrows on the final three fingers. She was getting a lot better at that. “Looks awesome!” the man exclaimed. “You’re a true artist, Tashi.”  
Clint ran in, his arms full of nail polish bottles. Phil stepped back to take a picture of Black Widow and his son discussing the merits of different colors of red while his daughter bullied the prostrate archer into giving her his other hand. The hero finally turned off the computer and put it down so Tashi could paint his left hand and he could just let the right dry.   
Phil discretely sent the picture to Melinda and Pepper before taking a seat on the couch to watch. Clint started painting Widow’s nails with a quick drying, bright red.   
“I think the blood red is perfect, than Tashi can give me black hourglasses on my trigger fingers,” the woman said, relaxing against her partner’s bent knees.   
Tashi giggled. “Cool,” she said, still engrossed with her design on Hawkeye’s fingers.   
“Most people call that the index finger,” Phil pointed out with good humor.   
Widow leaned her head back to look up at him and her eyes twinkled dangerously. “We’re not most people, Coulson,” she said.  
“I call it the pointer finger,” Hawkeye pointed out. Widow poked his foot and rolled her eyes. “Hey, watch the toes,” he squawked indigently.   
“They’re glow in the dark.” Clint beamed up at her. “I can do your toes to. Aunt Pepper lets me do her toes sometimes.”  
“Sorry, little hawk, but I don’t paint my toes,” she said regretfully.   
“Why not?” Tashi asked. “Are you ticklish like Uncle Tony?”  
“She’s just embarrassed,” Hawkeye said. Widow reached back to jab him in the side hard enough to make him gasp.   
“Why?” Phil asked.   
“Barton,” Widow warned coldly, but the archer just grinned up at Phil.   
“She’s got gross dancer toes,” he explained and laughed when Widow poked him again.  
“You’re a dancer to?” asked Tashi excitedly.  
Widow shrugged, trying to cover up something, which Phil guessed was a genuine emotion rather than a carefully controlled act like normal. “It was a useful skill when I was younger. Ballet teaches flexibility, strength, timing, and discipline.” She looked over at Hawkeye with a grim smile and he gently bumped her as a sign of support. “Dance is one of the few positive things I remember from back then.”  
Phil felt his heart clench at the regret and sorrow barely hidden in her voice. He was so caught up in comparing them to his innocent children, he almost forgot they were adults with very dark histories. He wanted to hold the woman, hug her until she lost that haunted look in her eyes, but he knew she wouldn’t want that. He felt completely at a lost as to how to help. Luckily he had two amazing children who were wiser than he.  
“Can you show me?” Tashi asked eagerly. “I’m taking lessons and my teacher Ms. Pryde says I’m really good. I’ll show you mine.”  
“Yeah, Nat,” Hawkeye encouraged gently. “Let’s see you show off a bit.”  
Widow chuckled softy and muttered something in Russian. “Fine, but only if you show off your tumbling routine. I won’t be the only one on display.”  
“Done and done,” Hawkeye agreed eagerly. He beamed up at Phil and the kids from his position on the floor. “Remember how I said I was in the circus? Well, I was the Amazing Hawkeye, the World’s Greatest Marksman. If Stark has a room big enough, I’ll show you my headliner act. It used to really draw the crowds.”  
“Really?” Clint asked, wide-eyed. He was practically vibrating so Widow relieved him of his nail polish brush for a minute. He turned to Phil, “Please, Daddy, please, please, please, can Hawkeye show us his circus act?”  
“Yeah, Phil, can I please?” Hawkeye said, mirroring the boy’s hopeful expression.   
Phil could never say no to that face and now, seeing it twice had him melting. “Of course, he can, Clint,” Phil chuckled. “I know Tony had room somewhere in this place.” He considered the four of them and felt like a fifth wheel. “Why don’t I go ask him now? That way he hadstime to set it up. I’ll see you at lunch, Pepper and Melinda are cooking.” He pushed himself off the couch before walking over to the kids. He bent down to kiss Clint’s head, and pat Tashi’s hair. He grinned at the two heroes and made his exit. As the elevator doors closed, he could hear four distinct laughs echoing through the floor.  
“JARVIS,” Phil asked the camera.  
“How can I assist you Agent Coulson?” the AI asked.  
“Can you send me a copy of the footage from this morning?” Phil asked, feeling a little self conscious.  
“Of course, Agent Coulson,” JARVIS answered promptly. “Ms. May-Coulson and Ms. Potts-Stark have also requested a copy.”  
“Of course they did,” Phil acknowledged. He chuckled to himself, “Why don’t you send it to Director Fury to, he will never ask for it himself.”  
“It shall be done,” the disembodied voice promised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still looking for ideas! Keep them coming if there is something you want to see.


	7. Chapter 7- Family Life 3 (Lessons from an Expert)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, another chapter of adorable shanaigans. I'm still having trouble keeping these characters in line, so just expect these snippits to be long. Hope I don't ramble too much.

Tashi-

Early on Tashi had decided it was her job to protect her family. And she was good at it. No one picked on Clint or Bruce without dealing with her. It wasn’t much of a problem now, but when they were little she had to work at it. That’s why she treasured her lessons with Melinda. It was her special time with her new mom. So she was understandably annoyed when Melinda walked into the practice room with Black Widow beside her.  
Widow stopped short when she saw Tashi. “I don’t think this is a good idea, May,” she said, stiffening up. Tashi thought she looked like she wanted to run.  
“Melinda,” Tashi’s mom corrected, not missing a step. She walked right up to Tashi and put a hand on her arm. “I happen to think it is an excellent idea. Maybe you can give her some pointers.”  
Widow narrowed her eyes, not sure what the other woman was thinking. Tashi didn’t know either and she looked back and forth between the two women fast enough to make her a little dizzy.  
“I’m not good with kids,” Widow said like she was coming up with excuses.  
Melinda laughed. “Neither am I. Clint and Tashi are the only ones who didn’t run away from me. At work, they call me the book monster.”  
“Suits you,” Widow commented. She considered Tashi, who was trying her best to imitate Clint’s puppy eyes.  
“Please,” the little girl asked. “I bet you can teach me all kinds of tricks to use against a bigger opponent.”  
Widow sighed. “Fine, how do you propose we start?”  
Melinda nodded approvingly. “Let me and Tashi start like we normally would and you watch us. Then give me some pointers. Then we can both work with Tashi. That way she can watch before it’s her turn.”  
Widow nodded and moved against the wall. Tashi took her stance, waiting for her mother to start. Melinda led her in a series of stretches before moving on to forms. They practiced kicks, punches, blocks and holds all under the careful scrutiny of the Black Widow. To Tashi, it seemed like no time at all when Melinda signaled her to bow and step back. Tashi did as she was bid, but it felt like they had only just warmed up.  
“So what do you think?” Melinda asked, turning to their observer.  
“You practice Wushu,” Widow said, pushing off the wall. “You must compete.”  
“Not for a couple years now, the last time was before I married Phil.”  
“She got 10th at the national competition and was so cool,” Tashi spoke up, proud of her mom. She didn’t like Widow’s tone.  
“That is impressive,” the hero agreed. “I have never competed but I’ve fought masters of that style. You are as good as I expected.” She stopped at the edge of the mat, and looked them up and down, weighing them. Tashi didn’t like being judged. “My style is not as clean because I fight for survival not points. That is what I can show her.”  
“Good,” Melinda said. “That is what I want. Phil works with them both, but he is their father. He takes it easy on them.”  
“I won’t,” Widow promised. “Not because I’m mean, but because holding back now could get them killed in the future. Can you handle that Tashi?”  
Tashi bared her teeth in a mockery of a smile. “Bring it on,” she challenged. “I want to get stronger, strong enough to protect my family.”  
“Good,” Widow said approvingly. She melted enough to give the younger red-head a real smile. Then she turned to Melinda. “You first.”  
Tashi hurried off the mat to give the women room. They give a quick bow and moved into the spar quickly. It was amazing to watch. It was like a movie. They moved so fast that Tashi almost couldn’t follow them. It was obvious even to Tashi that Widow’s fighting style was nothing like Melinda’s. The assassin flowed like water and bounced like an acrobat, sometimes leaping completely over her opponent. Despite being outmatched, Melinda held her own against the hero and even managed some good hits.  
The first time Widow put Melinda on her back, the librarian growled at her. “How are you so flexible?” she complained as Widow helped her back to her feet.  
Widow smiled and threw a kick that Melinda barely dodged. It could have knocked her out if it had landed on her temple. The dodge had her on the ground so she tried to knock the Russian’s feet out from under her but Widow just grinned as she leaped over Melinda, and swinging her legs around in a move that should have been impossible in mid-air, she caught the older women in a head lock between her legs that brought them both to the floor. Melinda tapped out and Widow let her go immediately.  
“What was that?” Melinda asked, gasping.  
“A signature move,” Widow said with a shrug. “It works pretty good against strong guys for reasons I can’t say in front of Tashi.”  
“I bet,” Melinda said dryly.  
They kept up like that for a few more rounds. Melinda pinned Widow once, but she got out pretty quick. Tashi tried to figure out how to move like that, but it looked impossible, like something from a cartoon.  
After the fifth face plant into the mat, Melinda asked for a chance to catch her breath. “I’m not as young as I used to be,” she complained as Tashi brought her a water bottle.  
“You’re good,” Widow said. She looked over at Tashi. “Let’s try something different.” She got on her knees and put her arms in a defensive position. “Fight me like this. You were right, I’m used to fighting people much stronger than me. I fight alongside gods against monsters. I have to be able to hold my own and I do.”  
Melinda nodded and Tashi hurried out of the way. Melinda looked like she wasn’t sure how to attack someone who was now half her size.  
“Tashi,” Widow said, catching her attention. “Use your size to your advantage. It’s easier to punch up than it is for them to punch down.” She demonstrated by hitting Melinda in the stomach and making her retreat. “Also, take out their legs, and then they’re on your level anyway. Once you have them down, you have the advantage.” She leaned down to hook an arm around Melinda’s ankle when the other woman moved to attack. They were both moving slower now (probably for Tashi’s benefit) and Tashi could see how Widow used her lower center of gravity to bring down Melinda. Melinda didn't get up for a minute.  
“I didn’t think of some of that,” Melinda admitted from her prone position. “I’m usually shorter than most of my opponents but not by that much.”  
“I’ve fought Frost giants,” Widow said, getting to her feet and helping Melinda up. “Thor comes to their knees. We had to get creative.”  
“Tashi,” Melinda said, motioning her over, “your turn, little spider. Are you ready?”  
Tashi squared her shoulders. “Yep!”  
The lesson was brutal but fun. Widow didn’t care about form, she cared about results. She made Tashi move in ways that seemed impossible until the older woman forced her body to cooperate. It was like a switch was flicked on in her head. After an hour, Tashi was leaping around like Widow and knew three new ways to take down a full grown man without endangering herself. Widow was impressed.  
“I’ve never seen anyone pick this up so fast,” the hero admitted when they took a break.  
“What about you?” Tashi asked innocently.  
Widow shook her head. “I’ve been training since I was your age, and I was the best, but it took time.”  
Tashi grinned. “Can you teach Clint too?” she asked. “I bet he’d love this style.”  
“I trained Hawkeye,” Widow said with a shrug. “I bet I can teach the young hawk.”  
“Awesome,” Tashi said. “But first, can you show me how to do that fluid dodge again?”  
As the two red heads returned to the mats, Melinda nodded in satisfaction. She knew this was a good idea. Tashi was learning a lot and Black Widow was finally relaxing. She winced at a twinge from her ribs. It was worth the bruises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It won't be in the next chapter, or the next couple of chapters, but I'm thinking of bringing Captain America through to this world. Thoughts? Opinions? Concerns? Let me know what you think.


	8. Chapter 8- Family Time (Deep talks with the Hawk)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These chapters aren't in any particual order, so don't worry about the plot for a while. Hope you enjoy the heart to heart talks with Hawkeye.

Chapter 7- Family Life 4 (Deep Talks with the Hawk)

Bruce Banner-

Bruce walked into the kitchen, reading from a tablet that Tony had given him. He wanted to learn more about theoretical physics so he could help connect to the other universe that Hawkeye and Black Widow originated from. He was so engrossed that he didn’t notice he was not alone until he was trying to reach for the peanut butter without taking his eyes of his reading, and someone handed it to him. He looked up in surprise.  
Hawkeye stood there, still with one hand on the jar, grinning disarmingly. “Hi,” the archer said. “What’cha reading there?”  
Bruce blinked and finally took the peanut butter and started to make the sandwich that he had planned to. “Theoretical Physics text book,” he answered, ducking his head to avoid eye contact. This was the first time he had been alone with either of the new comers and he was still nervous around strangers, especially strange men.  
“Cool,” Hawkeye said, grabbing a couple of slices of bread for himself. “Let me guess, you missed lunch?”  
Bruce shrugged.   
“The Bruce I know does that to. He and Stark get lost in their lab that sometimes we have to physically drag them out,” the blond laughed. He pulled out a butter knife and flipped it in his hand a couple times. “We usually make Steve do it because it’s hard to say “No” to Captain America when he gives you ‘the face’; or Widow because Stark is still a little scared of her.”  
Bruce hummed, interested despite himself. He finished his sandwich and took a bite. Hawkeye moved to grab the peanut butter again, which was on Bruce’s far side. Bruce flinched away; purely reflex that he had yet to overcome despite how ridiculous it was.   
Hawkeye didn’t comment on the flinch, only continuing his reach for the jar and started to spread the gooey stuff on his bread.   
Bruce swallowed his bite, which had stuck in his throat a little. “Is the other me scared of her?” he asked quietly.   
Hawkeye paused and tapped his chin with the butter knife which left a brown smear. “No, I don’t think so. He’s respectful, I think, but not scared. Honestly, I think the only thing that scares him is himself.”  
“Why?”  
“The Hulk is something to fear,” Hawkeye answered with a shrug. “Not a ‘Oh, run away! It’s a monster!’ scared, though he gets a fair amount of that from the public. More like respectful fear, like a fear of heights or the ocean. It’s smart to be afraid but don’t let it bother you.”  
“Clint isn’t afraid of heights,” Bruce said thoughtfully.   
“Me neither,” the man beamed. He finished making his sandwich and took a bite. “Honestly, I’m not scared of Hulk either. He calls me Cupid and I’ve ridden his back before. But I’m not the best example of self-preservation, so take what you will from that,” he said with his mouth full.  
Bruce grimaced at the man’s manners and calmly ate his sandwich as he thought. After several minutes of companionable silence he asked, “Do you like the other me? Not just the Hulk, which I still don’t understand about, but Bruce?”  
“Yes, of course. He’s a genius and a good man. He doesn’t let his condition keep him from helping people and now he uses it to save the world. I admire him.”  
“I used to think nobody liked me,” Bruce said, part of him wondering why the heck he was telling the hero this. “Until Aunt Karen and Tony and Clint, no one wanted me.”  
“Why?” Hawkeye asked, turning his full attention on Bruce. It was intimidating to be pinned by that gaze, like a mouse pinned by a hawk. Bruce thought he needed to work on his metaphors.  
“My father killed my mother and I was passed around from family member to family member before Karen took me in,” Bruce explained, shortly, trying not to remember what it felt like to be thrown away.  
Hawkeye grunted and took another bite of his sandwich; it was almost gone, before replying. “Do you still feel that way?”  
“No,” Bruce admitted. “Karen kept me and Tony kept me. Oh and Clint kept me and he says we’re going to get married someday though that is statistically unlikely.” Hawkeye choked but didn’t interrupt. “Pepper says she loves me and Phil and Melinda make me feel safe.” He grinned up at the archer. “After Grandpa threatened me to try and black-mail Tony, they got him sent to jail. I punched him in the crotch.”  
Hawkeye laughed. “Good for you little man.” He held up a hand for Bruce to hi-five. “Don’t let your past keep you down. This family you have here, that’s the one that matters. The rest, that’s just a cosmic accident.”  
Bruce grinned until a thought occurred to him. “How do you know?”  
Hawkeye shrugged. “I know where you’re coming from. Everyone I ever cared about left me, it’s kinda a trend.” He turned away and his eyes unfocused, like he was looking out over a vast distance. “Don’t tell anyone, but I know about fathers to. My dad beat my brother and me. He beat me so bad I went deaf for a while. And after he died, no one wanted me either.” He turned back to Bruce and his eyes were soft. “But now I’m an Avenger, a hero. I over came all that and made something of myself. You, you have the support of all these people. You will be amazing. Don’t forget that.”  
Bruce nodded. He was amazed that a man as big and strong as Hawkeye could understand how he felt. It was kind of amazing and surprisingly, it did make him feel better. In a sudden burst of emotion he rushed forward to give the hero a lightning fast hug. “I won’t,” he promised. “You shouldn’t forget that Clint and Tashi kept you too. They don’t do that lightly and it means you’re likable to.”  
“That’s true, kid,” Hawkeye said softly, turning away but not before Bruce saw the proud little smile that he wanted to hide.  
“What’s true,” Black Widow said, walking into the kitchen.  
“Nothing, just guy talk,” Hawkeye said jovially, beaming at the woman like he hadn’t just had a talk about abusive fathers.  
Widow stalked in and gave Hawkeye a once over. Seeing the peanut butter smudge on his chin, she licked her thump and wiped it off.   
Hawkeye reeled in disgust. “Awww, Nat, no,” he whined. “That’s gross.” He wiped his hand across his chin and glared at his partner. Bruce was laughing so hard that his sides hurt.   
“Come on, you two,” Widow said, ignoring their antics. “Coulson and Fury called a meeting. We’re going to talk about our options.” When neither of them moved, her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Now, gentlemen.” She turned to leave without confirming that they were following her.  
Bruce whispered to Hawkeye. “I can see why she’s scary. The other me must be very brave.”  
Hawkeye laughed again. “So are you, mini-green. Now, let’s go before she gets really scary.”

 

>>>\------------>

Tony Stark-

Tony was not moping. He was not frustrated with the equations he was working on. He was not lonely because Bruce had gone down to join the nail painting party. He was a grown man; he didn’t need his fingers painted in red and gold. He pushed his rolling chair away from the bench hard enough that he sailed across the room and into Dummy, who was being quiet for once. The robot whirred indigently and moved into the corner where it would be out of the way. Okay, maybe Tony was moping just a little.   
He needed a distraction. He looked over to the quiver of arrows he had tossed in the corner of the lab. When SHIELD first brought in Hawkeye, the archer had a quiver of specialty arrows. Coulson had left them with Tony because some of them had looked like modified Starktech. Turns out he was probably right, since Hawkeye likely got them from his alternate dimension Tony Stark. Tony pulled out one of the odder looking arrows and laid it on the table.  
“Scan that for me, JARVIS,” he asked. He pushed his rolling stool down the bench to grab a couple tools and swung himself back fast enough to make him a little dizzy. Dizzy was fun.  
“There appears to be a liquid compound inside the arrowhead, sir. Readings suggest, HCl.”  
“Why does he have hydrochloric acid in an arrow?” Tony mused. He decided to not poke that one. Acid burns hurt. He pulled another arrow out, this one with bulbous head. “Scan this one, J.”  
“This one contains a carbon based fluid that I cannot identify,” JARVIS admitted, sounding a little sullen.   
“Shake it off, J,” Tony said, bring out a small screwdriver and pick. He started prying the halves of the arrow head apart. It was delicate work, but he managed to not set off the small charge that would have dispersed the mystery fluid. When he had the capsule sitting by itself, he asked JARVIS to scan it again.  
“It appears to be a derivative of a tree sap, unknown species, sir.”  
“What good is a tree-sap arrow?” Tony asked again.   
He was reaching for another arrow when Hawkeye dropped down from the vent. Tony whirled in alarm and grabbed something to throw at the intruder. Unfortunately he grabbed the capsule and it broke in his hand, covering his hand, arm and bench top in sticky residue.  
“Keeps people from running away,” Hawkeye said with a grin. “Want some help?”  
“Yes, please,” Tony grumped. He couldn’t move from the bench.  
“Do you have any rubbing alcohol?”   
“Over there,” Tony waved his free arm in the direction of his chemical cabinet. He was much more organized and neat since he started letting the twins and later Bruce into his lab. No longer could he leave chemicals or dangerous tools lying around. It would be disastrous if one of the kids poked at something they didn’t understand and even worse if they used something they did. Clint in particular was a notorious prankster.   
“Gotcha,” Hawkeye said, quickly grabbing the correct bottle. He snagged a rag and started wiping off the sticky stuff. “I call that my putty arrow. It works great at stopping a person in their tracks.”  
“I see that,” Tony said. “What about these other ones?”   
Hawkeye seemed more than happy to expound on his may trick arrows. “This is a bollo arrow. It shoots these three balls that are connected by a wire that wrap around the target. This is a net arrow, pretty self-explanatory, that one. This is my explosive tip arrow. I go through a lot of those.”  
“Awesome,” Tony said, picking up the fore-mentioned arrow. “Do you make these?” Tony was so absorbed in examining the arrow that he almost missed the look on Hawkeye’s expressive face, almost.   
“I do,” the archer said, flatly. He was shutting down. His face looked hurt and vulnerable for a split second before it turned blank and his shoulders tightened.   
Tony wondered what the hell he had said to warrant that reaction. He drew out his exanimation to give himself time to think, but honestly he was coming up dry. “That’s awesome. How do you trigger the explosive? It is impact detonated or remote.”  
Hawkeye blinked at him owlishly (ha, owls). “Um, both actually. These ones detonate on impact but these ones over here are remote activated. I only have a couple of those since I don’t use them that often.”  
“Nice,” Tony said. He picked up one that definitely looked like something he would make. The red and gold color scheme was a huge hint. “What about this one?”  
“Um, Stark actually made that one. It’s an EMP arrow,” Hawkeye laughed softly. “Actually he made that as an apology when he accidently blew up my perch during a mission. I got away okay, but he really felt bad about it. He wouldn’t drop it so I said ‘make me a cool arrow and we’re square,’ and that’s what he came up with.” The archer gently took the arrow from Tony’s hand. “I’m not really sure how it works and it’s a little too heavy, but it’s pretty awesome, right?”  
“Very awesome,” Stark agreed. He grabbed another arrow off the pile, about to ask more questions, but the look on Hawkeye’s face stopped him. “What?” he asked, a little uneasy. “Why do you look like I kicked your dog?”  
“It’s nothing,” Hawkeye argued. He snatched an arrow from the quiver. “This one is my favorite, though it’s not real practical. It’s a boomerang arrow.” He grinned at Tony, but Tony was the king of deflecting.  
“That’s pretty impressive,” Tony said, narrowing his eyes. “But what’s got you down? Seriously, don’t try to distract me.”  
Hawkeye rolled his eyes and lifted himself on the lab bench to sit. “Don’t worry about it, Tony. It just surprised me that you weren’t surprised.”  
“What now?”  
Hawkeye shrugged those impressive shoulders up to his ears. “Normally, people don’t believe that I could have made my arrows.”  
“Why not?” Tony asked. He was on to something, but he didn’t like where this was going. Despite the serious size difference, this was beginning to remind him of some of Bruce’s earliest visits.  
“I’m a circus wash-out who didn’t finish primary school. I’m not the smart one,” the man joked.  
Tony considered his response before he spoke (yes, he could do that when he needed to). “Nope, going to ignore that,” Tony said, deciding to go with the casual dismissive approach. “See, I know my Clint and while he isn’t as smart as Bruce when it comes to things like chemistry, he is brilliant in so many other ways. Hearing you say something like that about yourself is insulting to my god-son and I will not stand for it. Do you hear me, young man?” Okay, casual went out the proverbial window, but at least he made his point.   
Hawkeye stared at him for a long moment. “I’m very good at applied physics and engineering. Each arrow has to be exact to the microgram or they don’t fly right. And I always hit my target, which can take some serious calculations.” Despite the positive message of the words, Hawkeye sounded like he was trying to pick a fight.   
Tony nodded, not rising to the bait. “You are impressive, Legolas. No denying it. You’re a hero for goodness sake. Now, if you’re done with the drama queen act, want to show me how the boomerang arrow works?”  
Hawkeye snorted a laugh, but he hopped down from his perch and came over to the read-out JARVIS had displayed of the arrow in question. “Sure thing, Tony.” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, which was adorable. “And, thanks,” he added softly.  
“Yeah, yeah,” Tony said dismissively. He had hit his quota of mushy. “Just tell me how to make a kid size version of this. It’d be great for Clint’s birthday present.”


End file.
